In the NASCAR Cup Series, the unlucky number as of late is 17.
Seventeenth is the highest-performing driver who failed to qualify for the playoffs. Seventeenth is the highest in points a driver and team outside the playoffs can finish. Seventeenth is the highest-performing team that misses out on the end-of-season bonus for making the playoffs.
And for the second consecutive year, the 17th driver is the driver of the No. 17.
The 2024 regular season was a tough pill to swallow for Chris Buescher. It started at Kansas Speedway in May, where he earned the unfortunate distinction as the runner-up driver in the closest finish in Cup history. It was so close of a finish that the scoring pylon illuminated with Buescher at the top, but video tape and timing lines showed that Kyle Larson eked out the win by just one one-thousandth of a second.
One week after Kansas was at Darlington Raceway, where Buescher was leading with eight laps to go until contact with Tyler Reddick left the No. 17 car with a flat tire and a 30th-place finish.
More drivers kept reaching victory lane as the season went on. After two brand-new winners in the final two races of the regular season (Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe), Buescher found himself the odd man out despite scoring the 11th-most points in the regular season.
He ended 2024 with a win by outdueling Shane van Gisbergen on the final lap at Watkins Glen International in September, but when it came to qualifying for the playoffs, it was a win that came two weeks too late.
Flash forward to the start of the 2025 playoffs, and it’s Groundhog Day for Buescher. He didn’t win a race in the regular season despite a few close calls, but he racked up consistent finishes. But it was all for naught once again, as Austin Dillon’s win at Richmond Raceway pushed him below the cut line, and he left Saturday night’s (Aug. 23) Coke Zero Sugar 400 as the odd man out of the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
In terms of statistics like average finish, top fives, top 10s and points scored, Buescher has easily been a top-10, top-15 driver this year. But whether it’s for better or for worse, the only statistic that matters in NASCAR is wins.
| Buescher 2025 | Season Rank | |
| Points Scored | 655 | 10th |
| Top 5s | 4 | T-10th |
| Top 10s | 13 | T-5th |
| Average Finish | 14.1 | 7th |
| Laps Led | 38 | 23rd |
It’s been the story of Buescher’s RFK Racing tenure with the Next Gen car. He’s won five races with the team since 2022, but he only qualified for the playoffs in 2023 after winning three races in the regular season. Every time that he’s had to point his way into the playoffs, he’s missed it by the slimmest of margins.
Buescher joined Martin Truex Jr. in 2022 as just the second driver in the stage racing era to miss the playoffs after finishing top 10 in the regular season points. It was an unlucky year full of surprise winners that allowed him to miss, but with the abundance of parity in the Next Gen car, we’re no longer at a point where surprise winners even qualify as surprises.
The 2025 playoffs and the upcoming offseason will be tough for RFK as a whole. They were the biggest losers last weekend at Daytona International Speedway, as all three cars failed to qualify for the playoffs. Ryan Preece was the second-highest driver in points to miss behind Buescher, and while Brad Keselowski redeemed his horrendous start to the year with a phenomenal summer, it was all for naught without a win.
RFK puts up consistent top-10 and top-15 finishes weekly in the regular season, but that’s no longer the formula for a successful season in today’s NASCAR. And as long as this points system remains in place, the team needs to regroup in the offseason, find winning speed on a more consistent basis and make sure that a triple-playoff miss never happens again.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf