The battle to be one of the sixteen drivers who make it to the 2025 Cup Series playoffs is hotter than ever after Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen. Two of the most notable drivers in this battle are RFK Racing teammates Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher. The latter gained an advantage at The Glen by finishing in third place, leaving Preece frustrated with himself.
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Preece spoke to the press in the aftermath of finishing in 13th place and said, “You can definitely manage those expectations, but I f***ing hate losing, so it’s hard to do that… I want to go to Richmond, and I want to f***ing do everything it takes to win. A lot of passion with racing, so it’s nice to be in the position where I’m racing again.”
“I fucking hate losing” –@RyanPreece_ on managing his expectations and emotions.
He also said “we need to be elite” as a team right now.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/BAAdR57WnQ
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) August 10, 2025
The 44 points that Buescher earned were the second-most points that any driver secured on the day. With just two more races remaining in the regular season, he sits 34 points above Preece, who scored 33 points on Sunday.
It is perhaps also not an encouraging fact for Preece that his teammate has prior experience winning at Richmond and Daytona, the venues of the final two races. But he doesn’t care where the races go down.
The one thing Preece is absolutely sure of is that he can cause a giant upset in the playoffs if he manages to squeeze his way in. Provided there is no new winner in Richmond, it will all have to be decided between the teammates. If there is, the fight will be for the next position that is held on points, now held by Alex Bowman.
What Buescher said after a massive points day at The Glen
Chris Buescher hates it when he isn’t going for the race win. And yet, that’s what he was forced to do on Sunday. His crew chief, Scott Graves, called for a different way to go about the event and kept him in a prime position to capitalize on points throughout the day.
Buescher later said, “We went for those stage points there, and it still put us in a good spot to be in contention here and really still be fighting for a win, just not close enough. But to head into the next two weeks, racetracks that we’ve won at, certainly not the best place to be, but to put some more points on the board, ultimately that just comes from fast race cars.”
Getting both cars into the playoffs would be the ideal dream that team co-owner Brad Keselowski has. But that’s a task next to impossible with only three more spots left to be filled on points. Tyler Reddick, Bowman, and Buescher currently occupy those spots.
