RFK Trio Dominates, But Falls Short Of Victory In Atlanta

Brad Keselowski (6) and Chris Buescher (17) lead Chase Elliott at EchoPark Speedway Saturday night. (Nigel Kinrade/NKP photo)

HAMPTON, Ga. – While all three RFK Racing cars fell short of their goal of winning Saturday night at EchoPark Speedway, positives still came out of the Quaker State 400.

In particular, all three cars made strides towards the mission of locking into the playoff field.

Team co-owner Brad Keselowski finished second, Chris Buescher was ninth and Ryan Preece came home 15th. After all three cars finished inside the top 10 last week at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway, in consecutive races the RFK bunch has now finished 15th or better two weeks in a row.

“It was a really solid night for us. This is the best race car we’ve had here since the reconfiguration, so I appreciate everybody working hard to make that our reality tonight,” said Buescher, who’s sentiments were echoed across the entire organization. “We were up there running strong, and I was there at the end. I just needed to keep track position, as a couple of cars were able to maneuver a little bit better there at the end of the race.”

Since the rebrand from Roush Fenway to Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, it was known around the garage that if RFK were in contention for a win anywhere on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, their best bet would be on superspeedways— such as Atlanta, Daytona or Talladega.

This is in part due to Ford building a strong superspeedway package powered by Roush Yates Engines, but also due to the driver talents behind the three RFK steering wheels on drafting tracks.

Saturday night, each car saw time out front leading the field, and each driver had their moments where they tossed their name into the hat of race-winning contention.

However, it came down to the end, when both Keselowski and Buescher held the top two spots until the closing laps.

But once the two were disconnected in the final three laps, then-leader Keselowski was outnumbered by the Hendrick Motorsports teammates of eventual race winner Chase Elliott and third-place finisher Alex Bowman.

After racing hard all night long, the 2012 Cup Series champion had played his hand out and had to concede the trophy in the end.

“The No. 9 of Chase Elliott just had Alex Bowman behind him, to give him a huge push entering turn one and there was nothing I could do to cover that,” Keselowski said. “When me and Chris Buescher had our cars linked up, we could do the same thing. But we lost that, and it was just kind of a two-on-one on the final lap, and I fought as hard as I could.

“The Next-Gen cars get too big of a run, and it isn’t over until it’s over. Every time I got the lead, I couldn’t seem to get everything to go our way,” he added. “If we could have gotten a caution or anything there it certainly would have been helpful, but that didn’t happen.”

Across all three cars, RFK Racing combined for 64 laps led, comprising 24 percent of Saturday’s contest.

Buescher gained four spots in the regular season standings and jumped to ninth, inside the top 10 in the standings. In terms of the playoff battle with 12 winners, he’s currently 14th overall.

Ryan Preece, in his first year with RFK sits just one spot out of the playoffs, 23 points behind Bubba Wallace for the final spot. Then there’s Keselowski, who while he sits 30th in the overall standings, led his most laps in a points race this season, with 46 circuits out front.

“We were fast. We were able to work together pretty well,” said Buescher. “We got far enough in a run where handling was definitely a balance offset for us, which was the difference from winning and I wasn’t able to stay connected as well as I needed to be in order to keep myself and Brad out front.”

RFK had 18 total stage points and 103 total points on the day as a team. If the playoffs were to start after Atlanta, only Buescher would make the field; however, the organization as a group is peaking at the right time with eight races left in the summer.

The 41-year-old Keselowski captured his first top five of the season in a points-paying race to go along with three top 10. Texas native Buescher now has three top fives and nine top 10s. Preece, 34, has one top five and seven top 10s, but is on pace for a career season through 18 races.

They came up empty in terms of victories, but what RFK did come up with is momentum at the end of the night in Georgia. The RFK group enters the Chicago (Ill.) Street Course with scorching-hot energy and deeper determination to find victory lane before the end of August.

“On superspeedways, but at Atlanta, you want to be up front. You want to be leading these things, but we were a little bit of a sitting duck tonight with some of the runs that came on from other drivers,” Buescher continued. “With handling the way it was Saturday night – there were a handful of cars that were able to take tires at the end with no penalty [such as Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.]. They just really didn’t have anything to lose, and it ended up showing up pretty big for them at the end.”

While presumably, Keselowski’s best shot at victory lane is the regular season finale at Daytona, time and time again when things start to go right for a wise veteran, success begins to blossom. With his first top five of the season, the Michigan native could pounce during another wild card weekend in Chicago.

The same goes for Preece. Consistency is key, and he’s shown that for arguably the first time in his career with a legitimate opportunity. While he doesn’t need to find victory lane, he only sits a manageable 23 points behind the cut line with eight weeks to make it up.

But, time will tell, as it did for Chase Elliott, who won his first race in over a year. With eight weeks left, the RFK bunch is looking to do the same.

Heading into Chicago, Preece’s best finish was 15th in the street race two years ago, while Buescher had a 10th-place result in 2023 and Keselowski has an 18th-place run there.

Coverage of the Grant Park 165 on the streets of Chicago begins July 6 at 2 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM Radio, channel 90.