5 Points to Ponder: Where Will Chris Buescher Go?

1. Is Chris Buescher In Control of Silly Season Now?

Now that the biggest silly season dominoes have fallen, it’s hard to say Chris Buescher is now in full control of the silly season market.

Of the remaining top teams with open seats on the market, there’s really no reason for them to make a signing until Buescher decides what he wants to do.

As an example, it wouldn’t surprise me if Richard Childress Racing hasn’t inquired about the driver’s status. To be clear, this is pure speculation on my part; I have no insider information.

But what we do know is that RCR offered Kyle Busch a significant paycheck to go over there in the first place. Now that RCR is on the hunt to fill that seat, Childress has the capital to go after a Buescher on the market.

Buescher is an incredibly underrated driver, one who has never really had the chance in top-tier equipment. Moving on from RFK Racing to an RCR seems like a poor decision in that regard.

But can RFK offer Buescher top dollar considering its charter situation? It’s a good sign of commitment that the team has already decided to retain its three-car lineup next year. But in the short term, the best-case scenario is that RFK runs the third car as an open entry and loses eight figures. The worst-case scenario is spending a reported nine figures on a new charter.

Maybe the reason these two go together so well in my mind is that RCR has always been a team that, at its best, will just outpoint everybody else. Think Ryan Newman’s almost Cinderella run in 2014, or Dale Earnhardt being the king of points racing back in the 1980s and 1990s.

Buescher is the same style of driver, somebody not flashy but just incredibly consistent. How often has he been even mentioned on TV this year? And yet he’s eighth in points and far and away the second-best Ford driver.

If he can get to RCR and they start to surge again, that could be an incredible pairing. But it’s also a risk, perhaps just as big a one as staying put at RFK.

2. Is it Time for Layne Riggs to Move Up?

The current points leader in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Layne Riggs should be promoted at the end of this year into one of Front Row’s NASCAR Cup Series seats.

It’s hard to continue justifying Noah Gragson scooting around out there 29th in points when yet another homegrown talent is right there for the team.

A Riggs promotion would be a tremendous vote of confidence for the team’s Truck operation, making it even more of a hot ticket item for drivers to jump over to.

Perform well, and you can get a Cup seat. It happened to Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith eventually went back to the team after flaming out at Spire Motorsports. Riggs would make it a full lineup of internal Truck alumni.

People think that development or junior programs are an attempt to find the next top driver in the team’s given series. That can be the case, such as with Hendrick Motorsports and Red Bull Racing.

But a lot of these programs are around these series to remove some leverage from a team’s existing drivers. Why pay out the bank when the team can promote a rookie up? Front Row seems to get this better than a lot of race teams do.

3. Can Denny Hamlin make it to Dale Earnhardt’s Mark of 76 wins?

Now that Denny Hamlin has matched Busch’s mark of 63 Cup wins, the next driver to pass is going to take some work.

Earnhardt is next up, with 76 wins. It’s not realistic that Hamlin will reach this mark without racing past next year, something he hinted at rethinking after his win at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday (June 7).

He also doesn’t have to be full-time. Business partner Michael Jordan’s favorite driver when he was growing up was Cale Yarborough, who might be the key to Hamlin extending his win column.

After 1980, Yarborough retired from full-time racing. It wasn’t the end of his career, however, as the South Carolinian then spent eight years racing part-time.

He was able to win 14 more races, a mark that would push Hamlin just past Earnhardt. I can absolutely see Hamlin spending years racing once or twice a month for 23XI Racing – and winning fairly regularly.

4. Is This the Lowest Valley for Connor Zilisch?

With his third straight last-place finish, Connor Zilisch’s bad season is starting to reach historic levels for a rookie in a top team.

He’s currently 34th in points, and would be 35th if NASCAR kept Busch in the official standings. Zilisch is behind all full-time drivers in Cup with the exception of Cody Ware. His average finish of 28 puts him in the neighborhood of Ware and 2023 rookie Gragson as far as drivers in the spec car era.

Zilisch has tremendous potential. But it’s very hard to imagine Hendrick has any interest in spending millions to pry him from Trackhouse Racing as some have speculated. Why would HMS? Especially when Corey Day is right there if it wants a project driver for its Cup car.

5. Next Up Is Pocono

Next weekend, the Cup Series storms into Pocono Raceway for its annual trip on the triangle

Of all of the ovals, Pocono has been the most affected by stage breaks. Pocono used to be an incredible test of crew chiefs and strategy calls, with a rain cloud on the horizon that could hit at any moment.

Instead, every team now is more-or-less on the same strategy unless we get lucky with when the cautions fly. It has become a bit more exciting on restarts in the spec car era, but it has also lost quite a bit of what made it an interesting watch to begin with back in the day.

If NASCAR were to ever go back to at least removing stage breaks from road courses, doing the same at Pocono would be a great benefit for this race in particular.