UPDATE: Brad Keselowski led the most laps in Sunday’s race, but couldn’t overcome a pair of issues to win.

BROOKLYN, MI – Rochester Hills NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski wasn’t blazing a new trail when he started his own racing team.

Dozens of drivers from Tony Stewart to Dale Earnhardt Jr. have done the same. But closing down the Truck Series team to start a manufacturing company is something unique to Keselowski’s story.

"No one's ever accused me of doing the same thing everybody else does," Keselowski said.

Keselowski hasn’t quit his day job – driving the No. 2 Team Penske Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series. He starts from the pole at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400. He’s trying to become the first Michigan-born driver to win a Cup Series race at the track.

Brad Keselowski Racing closed after the 2017 season and Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing opened in the same 70,000-square-foot North Carolina facility this January.

In his 305 races as an owner, Keselowski’s trucks won 11 races, with drivers including Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick.

But it was being part of “the next industrial revolution” inspired Keselowski to get into the manufacturing industry.

KAM engineers and manufactures next generation metal parts, Keselowski said. The field includes new technologies like 3D printing. While Keselowski said he has a passion for the work his company is doing, he can’t share too much about KAM’s work.

"All the cools things are a secret!" Keselowski said in an email. "They’re propriety in nature so I can’t talk about them. A lot of work in additive manufacturing starts off this way."

Keselowski's building in North Carolina has been changed over from a NASCAR team to a manufacturing business.

Keselowski said growing up in a racing family that built race cars for a living instilled in him the values of finding quality, innovation and speed in various areas.

“My interests certainly started there and has grown from there,” Keselowski said. “The roots of motorsports are the DNA of KAM, although our goal though is to be much bigger than motorsports.”

Owning a manufacturing company is a “completely different enterprise” from owning a race team, he said. The overall skills of working with people and technology do transfer over from his last entrepreneurial role, however, he said.

“Manufacturing is the same, whether it’s here or on the moon and Mars,” Keselowski said. “I’m learning a lot about the future of manufacturing and where the world’s going, which is really interesting stuff. Sometimes it’s really inspiring, sometimes really scary. But (I’m) glad to be a part of it along the way.”