If there is one aspect of a driver and team’s performance that modern-day NASCAR absolutely refuses to acknowledge or appreciate, it is a consistent run throughout the whole season. RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher knows about it all too well as he looks in from the sidelines during the 2025 Playoffs, along with his teammates Ryan Preece and driver-owner Brad Keselowski.
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With five top-5 and 16 top-10 finishes in 34 races till now for the No. 17 Ford Mustang driver, an average finishing position of 13.97 after an average starting position of 12.1 throughout the year hasn’t done Buescher any favors this season. The Texas native touched on the same, and how the statistics do not paint the complete picture.
Despite no wins until now in 2025, Buescher was optimistic about his and RFK Racing’s performance, having shown signs of speed on every kind of track the season has to offer, from superspeedways to road courses and everything in between.
“Consistency isn’t rewarded very well in this format, so, for us, we’ve been good. We haven’t quite been great and we’ve got a couple little steps to take here or there, but we’ve certainly been able to be a lot better rounded and enabled to be more competitive at any different style of racetrack and that’s been a lot of fun, whether it’s been short tracks, road courses, superspeedways, and mile-and-a-halves,” said Buescher ahead of last Sunday’s race at Talladega.
On the other hand, he did acknowledge how RFK Racing is still one step away from logging victories and challenging at the front week in week out at these facilities. “We’re close on all of them, and some are a little stronger than others, but we just have this small step to take forward across the board to be in the hunt to win consistently, I guess, is when it really starts to pay off. So, there’s nothing to be ashamed about,” he added.
With the current playoff format, teams like Buescher‘s often fly under the fans’ radar, primarily because the format solely rewards victories, which Buescher doesn’t have in 2025. He came close to taking the checkered flag in Michigan earlier in the year, only falling short to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin.
Talks surrounding tweaks to the format are ongoing within the sport, with pushes for a three-race championship finale rather than a one-race decider. However, these tweaks do not alter anything for teams like Buescher’s No. 17, which are within touching distance of victories, but are yet to make the final step to achieve them.
