Over the last two and a half years of watching NASCAR Cup Series races, I’ve found myself asking a specific question more and more often.
“When was the last time RFK Racing did that?”
For the most part, the answer has typically been: a long freaking time.
When the last time it won at Darlington Raceway?
Before Brad Keselowski’s dramatic win there in the spring, a Jack Roush car hadn’t tamed Darington since Greg Biffle in 2006.
The 58 laps Keselowski and Chris Buescher led that day were the most for the team at the track since Biffle led 74 in 2012.
When was the last time the team led more than 250 laps and won a race at Bristol Motor Speedway?
Before Buescher and Keselowski did that and the former won in 2022, it hadn’t been done since Matt Kenseth in 2005 (415 laps).
RFK Racing has even broken new ground since Keselowski became co-owner of the team and driver of the No. 6.
When Buescher won last year at Daytona International Speedway, Richmond Raceway and Michigan International Speedway, it was the first time the team had won at all three tracks in the same season.
On Sunday (Sept. 15), the organization updated its resume once again.
When Buescher got by Shane van Gisbergen on the last lap and won at Watkins Glen International, it marked RFK Racing’s first victory there since 1995, when Mark Martin claimed his third consecutive win at the New York road course.
But more importantly, it was the first time the team had more than one car win in a season since 2013, when Carl Edwards and Biffle combined for three wins.
“It’s interesting, I wasn’t aware of that stat,” RFK President Steve Newmark said after Sunday’s race (Sept. 15).
Newmark noted the “rough patch” the team went through, starting after Edwards left at the end of 2014 and up through 2021, the year before Keselowski’s name was added to the masthead.
“Sports are cyclical,” Newmark said.
He added that RFK Racing hadn’t been “achieving what we had aspired to and what our goals were each year.”
He gave “a lot of credit” to the addition of Keselowski and how “his leadership … kind of helped us continue to evolve as a race team.
“But our goal is for both cars every week to be a threat to win the race. There’s no doubt if you rewind a few years, we weren’t there. But we do feel that we’ve gotten there in the last year, year and a half.”
Newmark cited Keselowski and Buescher finishing seventh and eighth in the playoffs in 2023, Buescher’s three wins and Keselowski having “some close opportunities,” yet not making it to victory lane.
For Newmark, the stat from this year that “probably tells the story the best” for RFK Racing is the two drivers being in the top six in average finishes on the season.
“We had two of the top five,” Newmark said. “I think what that is a testament to is at every style of racetrack, both cars have the opportunity to run up front and win races.
“… Chris has evolved as a racer. He is a threat on short tracks. He has won at Bristol and Richmond and now won on the road course, won on superspeedways, won at intermediates.
“So we feel like we need to be good and a threat at every type of track in order for us to get to where we want to be. We’re not there yet, right, because you want both cars in the playoffs and you want both cars in the final four. But we feel like we’re taking the right steps.”
If anyone is familiar with the struggles of Jack Roush’s team, it’s Buescher.
The longtime development driver for the team won the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in 2015 then competed for Front Row Motorsports and JTG Daugherty Racing in the Cup Series before rejoining Roush in 2020.
“I have been underneath the RFK banner for half my life now,” Buescher said. “I have spent a lot of time in situations that would be underdog situations or just in an era where our team was not in its best place either, but none of that time was wasted. …
“It got to the point where … you almost tried to find tiny victories in it. You look back at it now and say that was a lot of learning experiences through the years, a lot of realizing that complacency may have struck you at different times, but you’re not happy with that.
“We’ve turned a massive corner at RFK. There’s a host of reasons for that for us to be in this spot now.”
His job is a lot “more fun” these days.
“Ultimately, the results are speaking for themselves,” Buescher said.
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.
I’ve been a Roush fan since Carl’s early days, and it’s great seeing RFK making it back as a highly competitive, winning team!
Has Brad’s father Bob had any effect on the team? He knows how to build a winning business.