By David Morgan, Associate Editor
HAMPTON, Ga. – RFK Racing has been on the upswing as of late and if you ask Chris Buescher, the chances of one of the three team cars between Buescher, team owner Brad Keselowski, and Ryan Preece making a visit to Victory Lane and punching their ticket to the Playoffs is as good as ever.
On two separate occasions in recent weeks, at both Michigan and Pocono, all three cars finished inside the top-10, with Buescher leading the way both times, finishing second and fourth, respectively.
With the positive momentum of the team, Buescher explained that he is reminded of the journey the team has been on lately and the ceiling that just keeps getting pushed higher and higher – going from expecting finishes in the top 20 as the norm and now being disappointed when the day doesn’t result in a top-10 or better.
“It’s fantastic to go to racetracks and have cars that run up front and feel like you have a shot to win, but ultimately you’re gonna have weeks where you’re gonna do all you can to run 15th,” said Buescher.
“I think it’s important for us to remember that it was just a handful of years ago that 15th felt like a step in the right direction, and we are way beyond that to the point where that’s what we feel like is a terrible week for us.
“I think that’s the only way to truly appreciate the best weeks is to realize that your bad weeks used to be what you considered good weeks. And that’s just not the case for us now. We have cars that are good enough, RFK’s done a great job, putting in the homework to bring fast cars to the track no matter where it is.
“And, you know, it’s more weeks than not that I feel like we have a shot to run the top five and have a chance to win.”
Asked if there was one thing in particular that has tipped the scales for RFK in recent weeks so all three of the team cars are competing for top-fives, top-10’s and wins, Buescher noted there was no one magic bullet, but instead a combination of factors that have brought them to their current state.
“There’s no one thing. It’s been work by everybody within the organization,” Buescher said. “It’s your cliche answer. Small things add up, but honestly, that’s it.
“There’s no one big thing in this sport nowadays. Everything’s so close together. It just takes a lot of detail work and our group’s done a great job at that.
“Our entire organization’s done a great job to where we feel like we get to go to racetracks and when we unload that thing off the hauler, you say, I think we have a chance to win this weekend. And on the bad weeks feel like we can run top 10 or run about 10th. So that’s, ultimately, it’s just an elevated program and we’re working to try and keep that up.”
Buescher added that he feels a win is within the grasp for not only his team, but all of the RFK cars, they just have to reach out and take it.
“It’s certainly right there,” he said. “It’s just gonna take the last little detail work to get it all put in place, and we’ll be in a heck of a spot.”
RFK team owner Brad Keselowski echoed Buescher’s optimism, but noted that there is still some frustration with not yet getting a win yet this season.
“We’ve had some really strong races where you don’t get the results and it’s kind of frustrating, but we’re on a good path. We want wins,” said Keselowski. “Strong showings like that are great and you’d like to think that we’re paying some dues in order to get the wins that we really need, but they’re not wins.
“I’m very optimistic that we can turn that into something with the weeks we have in front of us, but until then it doesn’t matter. With the way this format is we don’t get any bonus for top 10s. It’s all about the wins, but still it’s not a bad problem to have. A lot of reasons for optimism. All three teams have shown some bright spots.”
Saturday night’s race at Atlanta could be the night the team finally breaks through, with Preece and Keselowski starting fifth and sixth, respectively, and Buescher rolling off from 13th place.
The Quaker State 400 will kick off at 7:00 pm ET on TNT/Max.
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