(Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
FORT WORTH, Texas — For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Chris Buescher is off to the Round of 12.
Buescher made it to the second round relatively easily behind 21 playoff points, 15 of which were earned by winning three of the final five regular-season races. Despite a tire hiccup and 27th-place finish at Kansas Speedway, Buescher sandwiched the race with a third-place finish at Darlington Raceway and a fourth-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway.
For the driver who is in his fourth season driving Cup cars for RFK Racing, it’s hard to believe how much the organization has grown under co-owner Brad Keselowski.
“It has been a big change year over year and especially two years over to now. Certainly, it is impressive to see the progression and the change and the success that we have had which has been huge,” Buescher said when addressing the media on Wednesday. “I haven’t made it this far through a playoff round before so it has been a while since we have been able to participate in the playoffs. I am proud that we did a good job and pretty comfortably made it into the next round. We didn’t expect it to be very difficult for us.
“I think the biggest piece of advice has been that it doesn’t get any easier. This is going to be a challenge throughout the whole thing. We have been very competitive and come a long way. I feel like we have some very good tracks ahead.”
Buescher and RFK Racing started to see gains toward the end of last season, even excluding their victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. The No. 17 Ford Mustang finished top 10 in 10 races and won a pole earlier in the year at Dover Motor Speedway. This year, however, the organization has found consistency. Buescher is up to 14 top 10s while Keselowski has the same and is also locked into the second round with his No. 6 team.
The Round of 12, however, contains an interesting mix of tracks. First, a trip home for Buescher, who hails from Prosper, an hour northeast of Texas Motor Speedway. It hasn’t always been his best track as he’s never scored a top 10, but had speed last year before a tire failure.
Chris Buescher walk across the stage for driver introductions at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
“I think internally, we can point to some things through the year at the 1.5-mile tracks that can make us better,” Buescher said. “In one way, we certainly have gotten better after the first couple of months of the season where we had been to a few and maybe didn’t have our strongest showings but we haven’t had many to lean into, and compare where we have come this season. Kansas would have been the one. Granted, that was not as competitive as we wanted to be there but certainly felt like we had some glimpses of good things there and have some ideas that we certainly want to try going back.
“[Texas] is a track that I look at as a good opportunity for us to go have a good day still. Putting aside that we haven’t been as strong at the mile-and-a-halfs but we haven’t had many the last couple of months.”
Afteward, it’s a trip to Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL — two “wild cards.” But with top fives on all three superspeedways, including a win at Daytona and finishes of 11th or better at each of the five road courses, the final two races of the round may shake out better for him compared to others.
“The way I see it, the superspeedway races always have a certain amount of unpredictability but where I am at is I know RFK will be bringing fast Fords to [Talladega],” Buescher said. “I know we will be in contention to win it, assuming we can survive the chaos. But I think we have seen that same chaos at a lot of different tracks throughout the year. Bristol last year was a train wreck when you talk about cars falling out and having issues. I promise you after losing out on a bunch of points at Kansas, it was on my mind going into Bristol, knowing we would be fast but that there was an array of issues that popped up last year and took really good cars and ruined their days and their playoffs.
“I am excited for this round because I know we will be fast at all these race tracks and if we can control that part of it and take care of ourselves then it shouldn’t be that stressful on us.”
Buescher starts the Round of 12 seeded fifth in the playoffs, 10 points above the cutline.
Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Tyler Reddick is the defending winner.
