Champagne and confetti ruled the garages of RFK Racing on Sunday after a thrilling race win at Watkins Glen International. The No. 17 Ford Mustang driver Chris Buescher executed a flawless race with the help of his crew and delivered through a close-cut final lap to reach the victory lane. The memorable result broke one too many records previously set at the 2.54-mile road course.
Advertisement
Buescher had qualified to start the race from 24th place. This is the worst starting position by a Watkins Glen winner in the entire history of NASCAR across all three national series. He also broke a personal 37-race winless streak and became the 10th driver in 2024 to snap a streak at least this long. His teammate Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, and Austin Cindric were other drivers who did it earlier.
Finally, Buescher made it so that this is the first time since 2013 that RFK Racing has two of its drivers winning races in a single season. Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle did it back in 2013. These feats hammer down on the fact that RFK Racing is no longer the meddling midfield team that it was. The journey back to glory is officially on track and the leadership of Brad Keselowski is to be thanked for that as well.
This is the first time RFK Racing has seen multiple drivers win a race in a season since 2013 (Edwards and Biffle) https://t.co/ubIS0rbPHK
— Trey Ryan (@TreyRyan99) September 15, 2024
Team President Steve Newmark said after coming to know of the broken records, “What we’ve seen, and a lot of credit goes to Brad and how he’s come in with his leadership and kind of helped us continue to evolve as a race team.” That said, Buescher was around whom Keselowski made his development moves. And the driver proved his worth once again by conquering the road course.
Spire Motorsports creates fresh history at the Glen
RFK Racing wasn’t the only team to leave the compounds of the facility as a winner. Spire Motorsports found all three of its entries in the top 10 and multiple drivers in the top 5 for the first time in its existence. Rookie Carson Hocevar finished third, Zane Smith finished fifth, and Corey LaJoie came in eighth.
Things did not kick off great with Hocevar qualifying 29th. Fortunately, his team was able to make adjustments to the car before the main race. He told Frontstretch, “It was horrible [Saturday]. I was the last car in the 10-lap [average], but we were able to fix it overnight.”
The result was his first top-5 and fifth top-10 finish in the Cup Series. Smith is in his rookie year as well but has fared far worse than Hocevar. The fifth place was one of his best results and will prove useful in his current job search for a 2025 seat. LaJoie will have a similar purpose with his top-10 finish.
