Collaboration puts RFK Racing on the path to the playoffs

Last year was a season of inconsistency for RFK Racing, but the organization is on the upswing due to continued collaboration between Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher.

Buescher won at Bristol in 2022, but he and Keselowski both missed the playoffs after struggling with consistency. The No. 6 team also received an L2 penalty after Atlanta, which took away 100 driver and owner points.

RFK Racing is in the second year of this new era, and both drivers are above the cutline with six races remaining before the playoffs. Buescher is 12th in the standings; Keselowski is 11th.

Both drivers remain in the hunt for their first win of the season, but they have been able to put themselves in contention far more frequently.

“I think a lot of that comes down to the fact ... of what Brad’s come over here and really instilled within these walls,” Buescher said ahead of the Pocono weekend. “It’s been neat to see the people that have been at RFK a decade longer than I have at this point, to see them excited and rejuvenated and really enjoying the progression that we’ve had over the last 18 months as well.

“So, you take all of that into account, we’re on a good upswing. We’re in a good place, and I think we owe that to a lot of different things, but Brad has surely been a big part of it coming over.”

Keselowski only had six top-10 finishes and one top five last season, his first in the No. 6 Ford. He has eight top-10 finishes and four top fives through the first 20 races of this season. He has an average finish of 14.9 after ending last year with an average finish of 19.2.

Buescher had 10 top-10 finishes, three top-fives and one win last year. He remains winless this year, but he has eight top-10 finishes and three top-fives in the first 20 races. Like Keselowski, he has improved his average finish, going from 17.9 to 14.0.

“Right now, it feels really good because you have a little bit of a warm, fuzzy feeling on that side of things,” Buescher said, “but take away the cutline and everything coming up in the next couple of weeks and kind of take the season as a whole, we have been considerably more competitive this season every week.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of racetrack we’re at and, to me, that’s been a huge success story for us internally. It’s not completely there yet, but we’re not talking about RFK only at superspeedways.

"We’re able to go to short tracks. We’re able to go to superspeedways, road courses, our mile-and-a-half cars have come a long way. We’re competitive at a lot of different styles of racetracks right now, looking for a little step yet to be even more competitive.”

RFK Racing – formerly Roush Fenway Racing – has experienced the highs of winning championships across the national NASCAR series. The team has also experienced multiple winless droughts, the most recent of which lasted from the middle of the 2017 season to Buescher's win at Bristol last September in the playoffs.

RFK Racing no longer has a presence in the Truck Series or Xfinity Series. The team has focused solely on the Cup Series since the start of the 2019 season while relaying on Ryan Newman, Buescher and Keselowski as its primary drivers.

Focusing on only one series is one way to improve performance. Bringing in a champion with fresh perspective is another, and it is one that has the potential to pay significant dividends.

Keselowski has a business mind due to running Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing, and he knows how to succeed at the majority of tracks on the NASCAR schedule. He has been able to share this information with Buescher during their time together.

The building process hasn't been smooth since Keselowski left Team Penske to take on a new role at RFK Racing. His streak of consecutive winning seasons ended at 11 last year.

The 2012 champ knew that going winless was a possibility, but he explained last November that he wasn't worried because “If I’m able to do what I want with this company – and we are on the track to do it – it’s not going to mean a d--- thing to me."

“Part of the risk of taking the opportunity and making the move that I did is giving up some of those stats, which probably feel good in the moment but 10-20 years from now, I’m not going to care about those things. What I’m going to remember is being able to take this company from where it was a year ago to where I want it to be in the next year or so. That’s really what’s going to matter.”

Keselowski has helped RFK Racing make positive strides this season, which has put him and Buescher well above the playoff cutline. They could still miss the playoffs, but they would have to significantly struggle while multiple drivers below the cutline would have to win in the next six weeks.

This scenario is less likely based on the consistency RFK Racing has shown this year, but it is something that both drivers have in mind entering a pivotal stretch of the season.

“My kind of owner hat, I want both cars to be competing for wins,” Keselowski told NBC Sports’ Dustin Long after New Hampshire. “That's not where we're at. It's frustrating. We have to find more speed; we have to get better to be the team that we want to be – to contend for playoff spots and race wins and do that every week.”

“You can’t slow down now. Everybody has to keep going,” Buescher said. “Nobody else that we’re racing in this garage is sitting still. Even the ones that are winning aren’t content with where they’re at, so we just have to keep working hard.”

Buescher and Keselowski will continue the pursuit of playoff spots with the July 23 race at Pocono (2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network).