Chris Buescher Claps Back at Kevin Harvick for Criticizing RFK Driver’s “BS” Comments

Chris Buescher is above the playoff cutline going into the 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400 but only just. The RFK Racing star won this race last season and will be hoping to do the same again. Such has been the #17 Ford Mustang driver’s mentality throughout this season, going out to win races and not compete for points. Kevin Harvick did not buy into the same and recently said that it was “BS” on an episode of his podcast. Buescher replied to the 2014 Cup Series champion’s statement in a recent media interaction.

Winning races is by far the best way of getting into the playoffs. Buescher is 16 points ahead of the playoff cutline and he understands the situation he is in. However, that does not mean that he is going to race conservatively. The #17 driver revealed that his team feeds him information about how the other drivers he’s competing against for playoff spots are doing. That’s when he thinks about points during a race. But his mindset going into every race is to hopefully challenge for the win.

“I can assure him it’s not BS. It is not something that we’ve put any focus on throughout my career, especially not until it’s absolutely necessary. At this point, there are thoughts of what our point situation is, and discussed it a little bit today and last week. The last couple of weeks haven’t gone our way, so we don’t start the race thinking about points and how do we just put points up and play conservative,” he said.

Going in with a single goal to win a race does not mean that a driver does not think about their points situation. Buescher said that if there was no hope of winning a particular race, he was not going to drive rash and wreck, losing several points. It’s when there’s no chance of winning that the #17 driver and crew focus on earning as many points as possible.

Does Buescher have an advantage at Daytona?

The RFK Racing star has a decent P13 starting position for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday. He did have a good outing at Richmond where he finished P18 but last weekend at Michigan, the #17 car crossed the start/finish line in P6, keeping the fire alive within the team to visit victory lane soon. Buescher will be hoping to build on that performance and perhaps come up with a top-five finish if not the win.

“We know we’re gonna be fast when we get on track here in a short bit. We know we’ll have Fords that will race really well, that push really well, things that we’ve excelled at that it’s taken others longer to figure out, and a lot of the field is starting to catch up in those areas,” he explained.

Ford-backed drivers have not won a race since Ryan Blaney took the checkered flag at Pocono. Buescher would want to change that. Last year, he led a 1-2 finish for RFK Racing at Daytona. Expectations will be higher than usual and so will be the pressure. It remains to be seen what eventually comes of the ‘Crapshoot’ race as several drivers often refer it to.