RFK Racing Teammates Shine at Phoenix with Pair of Top Five Finishes

RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski scored impressive top-five finishes in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. After a trying start to the 2024 campaign, the two 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders may have pointed their arrows toward another magical run this season.

Buescher, who started the race from the 14th position, struggled initially to make headway in Sunday's race. However, Keselowski, who started from the 18th position, worked his way inside the top 15 around the mid-way point of the 60-lap opening Stage.

Keselowski would remain a mainstay inside the top 15 for the remainder of the race as he spent the ninth-most laps inside the top 15 (275) of any driver on Sunday at Phoenix.

Both drivers failed to score any Stage Points in the opening Stage of the race, and at the end of Stage 1, Keselowski and Buescher had essentially traded places in the running order as Keselowski ended the Stage in 14th, while Buescher was 17th.

While the opening Stage served as a feeling-out process for the No. 6 and 17 teams, both drivers and teams kept getting their cars more and more competitive, and as Stage 2 played out, both RFK Ford Mustangs began making progress toward the front of the field.

An incredible job by the No. 6 pit crew during the Stage break caution at Lap 66, elevated Keselowski into ninth position, marking the first time he would crack the top 10 on the day.

As Buescher was stuck in a minefield of race cars behind him, Keselowski knifed his way to the sixth position on the ensuing restart before settling in at seventh.

As Keselowski was enjoying the view from inside the top 10, Buescher had become stuck in 16th position until he finally broke inside the top 15 on Lap 142 after a good green flag pit stop by his pit crew.

After he made it into the top 15, Buescher's car came to life down the stretch in Stage 2, and by the time the green-and-white checkered flag was waving signaling the end of the Stage, Buescher had reached Keselowski in the running order.

Both drivers snagged Stage Points as Keselowski came home in ninth, and Buescher finished 10th in Stage 2.

Both RFK Racing drivers remained fixtures inside, or around the top 10 for the remainder of the final Stage, and after a multi-car crash erupted after contact from John Hunter Nemechek on Joey Logano, Buescher's crew chief Scott Graves elected to pull a strategy call.

The No. 17 team would pit with 104 laps remaining in the race. With an estimated fuel window of 96 laps, Buescher and Graves would hope for an additional caution down the stretch to help them save the necessary fuel to make it to the finish.

They got the caution they needed on Lap 215, but it nearly came at the expense of their teammate Keselowski, who was running fifth with under 100 laps to go.

Denny Hamlin made contact with Tyler Reddick on Lap 215, and spun while battling for the lead. As Hamlin spun, he careened across the track right in front of the nose of Keselowski's Consumer Wireless machine. It was a close call.

With Keselowski narrowly avoiding disaster, it was time for the final pit stop of the race for the No. 6 team, and it was at this stop that Keselowski's pit crew encountered a problem changing the right rear tire.

The miscue on pit road, sent Keselowski back to the 12th position for the ensuing restart.

With the strategy call from Graves, Buescher was able to obtain something that had been hard to come by all race long -- track position. Buescher would restart from the fourth position with 92 laps remaining.

As Buescher was shuffled to sixth on the restart, Keselowski knifed his way back inside the top 10, and he moved into the seventh position, less than 10 laps after the restart.

The race would run green the remainder of the way, and the two RFK Racing drivers would methodically pick off positions one-by-one, and in the end Buescher finished second to Christopher Bell, and Keselowski came home in fourth.

The great day was a much-needed reprieve for the two drivers, as Buescher ranked 23rd in the Playoff grid, and Keselowski was 28th after last weekend's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I was really impressed with our Ford Mustang today, that was awesome," Buescher said following the runner-up run. "A heck of a comeback after a rough go the last couple of weeks. We had really fast race cars and I am proud to be able to do that today."

While Buescher was encouraged by the rally to finish second, he knows there is still room for improvement for RFK Racing this season.

"I didn’t quite see [Christopher Bell] there at the end so I know they were lights out. We have some work to do to get to that point," Buescher explained. "What thrills me is we were by no means perfect on balance so we have a lot of room to make this thing better which is awesome. It tells me we can go compete for that thing."

Keselowski echoed the sentiments as he, too, was excited about his top-five run on Sunday, but he knows they lacked the overall speed to compete for a win.

“It was a good solid day for us," Keselowski stated. "We want to win these races but we didn’t have anywhere near the speed the 20 car did, I don't know if anybody did to be quite honest. We put ourselves in good position with a good pit call and a great restart at the end and we just tried to execute. The potential is there. We are just one step away and we are going to keep working on it until we get there.”

Even though they lacked just a little bit on their quest for a win Sunday at Phoenix, the RFK Racing drivers both flashed the competitiveness that led to them both being Playoff contenders a season ago.

With their first double top-five finish since Daytona International Speedway last September, the RFK Racing cars climbed a combined 12 positions in the Playoff grid standings this weekend.

Buescher vaulted six spots from 22nd to 16th, and he now sits two points above the cutline heading into Bristol Motor Speedway, where he won in the fall of 2022. And Keselowski moved up six spots from 28th to 22nd in the standings, and he sits just 11 points outside the cutline.

Keep an eye on the RFK Racing one-two punch of Buescher and Keselowski.

Photo Credit: David Rosenblum, NKP, Courtesy of Ford Performance