DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When RFK Racing drivers Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece visited the Daytona International Speedway media center on Friday (Aug. 22) both were asked many questions about their playoff berth scenarios before the regular-season finale the next day.
After a few long-winded answers and some humorous moments, however, Preece ended the presser on a serious tone.
“For me, when I sit in our meetings it’s the will to win,” Preece said. “We have three race teams that have extremely fast race cars that take control of these races.
“So, if you’re going to try to win this race, I guarantee you’re going to have to go through an RFK car to win.”
All three RFK drivers find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to this year’s NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. The good news is the final race before the postseason is at one of their best-performing racetracks.
The bad news? Only one of them can win their way in.
“Yeah, I wish we had three locked in right now,” said Buescher. “The part where it’s coming down and there’s basically one spot available and there are three of us, it’s not what we wanted to be doing at this point in the year. It’s the same questions that we’ve been talking through for three or even four months now about playoffs and cuts and all this and ultimately, it’s going to take a win to get in. I think we’ve understood where it’s been the entire time. This isn’t any kind of shock or surprise for us. I just thought we’d be able to win a race by now.”
However, the duo agrees the end goal of the night will be to help one another be at the front of the race at the very end. As many teams attempt ever so often, working together to pull ahead of the rest of the field and then racing each other in the final few miles has become a common strategy when it comes to helping one of their team cars make the playoffs.
However, few have done it better than RFK in previous years.
“We know how plate racing has been for RFK and how competitive we’ve been at these things and how much fun they are for us and how important it is to work together as teammates,” Buescher said. “Ultimately, there’s only ever one winner, so every time you come into a speedway race and you work with your teammates and you always have the mindset of push each other and get each other as far forward as possible until there are no cars left to pass, and then you work it out amongst yourselves.
“I still say that there’s no doubt in my mind that you come off of turn 4, and if you’re helping each other all day, then all bets are off at that point.”
In 2023, the RFK cars of Buescher and Brad Keselowski were nose-to-tail leading the Daytona 500 with less than five laps to go when the two were caught up in a late-race crash that took them out of contention. Only six months later, the two copied the same strategy, which led to Buescher winning with Keselowski second.
Just earlier this year in April, Preece ran second to fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric by mere inches at Talladega Superspeedway. The former was disqualified a few hours later, but the RFK speed was place on full display nonetheless.
“We’ve had a lot of great runs,” Keselowski said. “Ryan had a shot to win at Talladega, and missed by a few feet. I’ve had like three or four second-place runs here in the last year and a half on the restrictor plate tracks and kind of feel like we’re in a good spot to get [a win].”
Earlier at Talladega, Buescher and Keselowski were eliminated in two separate wrecks. However, on Saturday night, the RFK trio looks to stick together to stay ahead of the rest of the field.
Unfortunately for the rest of the field, that’s a strategy they feel they are still capable of doing.
“Chris has always been somebody that I’ve found myself trying to work with, whether I was teammates with him or not,” Preece said of his teammate. “So that makes it that much easier. Brad has always been, statistically, when you look at these races, even when he gets wrecked or something happens, he’s racing for the win.
“So, the way I look at this race is our jobs are to get up in the first few rows and work with each other to get there, but if Brad and Chris are in the first two rows, it’s my job to find myself there to work with them and put RFK or one of us in position coming to the line winning.
“You want to be selfish as a driver, but understanding the main goal for the company and the employees and everybody there, it’s very important that one of these cars gets into the playoffs because our speed. We’ve shown it throughout this year.”
It’s just a little bittersweet, however, considering the three drivers seem to have a genuine friendship with one another.
“Chris and I, it’s a genuine, easy relationship to have,” Preece said. “When we’re around each other it’s not a competitive nature of, ‘Man, I need to beat my teammate.’ It’s, ‘Hey, what can I do to help him,’ just as I assume when he’s around me, I notice that same reciprocation of whenever I need help.”
Yet according to Preece, that close bond should make them all the more formidable on Saturday.
“I see Chris’ team. I see Brad’s team. I see our team, and I see fast racecars when we come to superspeedways,” Preece said. “I feel like we’re in a strong position to get one of our cars in.
“Good luck to the other ones that are going to have to get through us.”
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT