Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher at Bristol Motor Speedway. (HHP/Chris Owens)
The last seven days have been a ‘whirlwind’ for Brad Keselowski and the rest of the folks who call RFK Racing home.
It started with Chris Buescher winning the team’s first NASCAR Cup Series race in five years at the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After a celebration at team headquarters in Concord, North Carolina, they then participated in two days of testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Then came Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway. Keselowski scored his first cup pole since 2019, giving RFK Racing its first multi-pole season since 2013.
“It’s a super exciting time for me and our company here at RFK with a lot of the progress we’ve made over the past few months that is now actually showing. It’s been a painful journey, but a good one,” said Keselowski after securing his 18th career Cup pole. “There’s just a lot of things happening in all directions, both personally and professionally with this business and my other business and with our foundation. Everything is wide open in all directions. Sometimes it’s hard to stop and think about how privileged and blessed I am to be in this position, but it’s a good time nonetheless.”
There are plenty of stats to cite that show that RFK Racing 2022 is on a clear uptrend for the first time in almost a decade.
W team, W photo 📸 pic.twitter.com/0Vk3SNlV5M
— RFK Racing (@RFKracing) September 19, 2022
But the last person to ask about that progress is Keselowski, who has seven races ahead of him in his first season as co-owner/driver with the team founded by Jack Roush.
“I live in my own bubble, so I’m not sure it’s fair for me to answer that question (about the team going through a tipping point),” Keselowski said. “I think that’s a question better answered by those outside of my bubble. It’s certainly a big step forward. I think I tried to at least articulate in the media center in Bristol last week that you do things in this sport and it takes six to 12 months for them to be realised. That’s the reality.
“Anything you do in this sport in a week or two is probably illegal. Most things that come together require months of behind-the-scenes work to come together. In that sense, it’s super painful. It’s really painful. You do things and you don’t get results and everyone is questioning and questioning the decisions made and you kind of have to stay the course.”
The team stayed on course as both cars went winless in the regular season, missed the playoffs and, following a 100-point, $100,000 penalty on Keselowski’s No. 6 team for an L2-level violation after the spring race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Keselowski himself has only had four top-10 finishes, his fewest since 2010, when he had two in his first full-time season with Team Penske.
Keselowski said much of his first year in his new role revolved around the contradictory relationship of wearing both a driver’s hat and an owner’s hat.
“They look at each other and say, ‘Not good enough.’ The driver side wants the cars better and the car owner side says you have to get the finish that you can get with the equipment you have,” Keselowski said. “It’s easier said than done on both sides. I probably fell victim to pushing too hard and not having the gear we needed earlier in the year and not always getting the results we needed to just keep going.
“It was very important to drive from 15th to 20th because we had cars in 25th place and that’s what we have. I probably became a victim because I was trying to get too much out of them and making our days worse than they needed to be, but also pushing them in such a way that it was very clear where the limits of our cars and their performance were and what we need to do to make them better. On the ownership side, I think our people are maturing and our processes are maturing. We’ve added some great resources across multiple areas. A lot of parts definitely come together.”
Keselowski says he is not a good person to ask about RFK’s progress. But if anyone can vouch for how far the team has come, it’s Texas native Chris Buescher.
Buescher, 29, is a 250 NASCAR Cup race veteran and was originally signed in 2009 as a Roush development driver. Despite stints at Front Row Motorsports and JTG Daugherty Racing, Buescher knows the history of RFK Racing for the past decade exactly.
Buescher’s Bristol victory, only his second cup victory, led to a winning streak of 222 races (Pocono 2016). But that win came with Front Row Motorsports. Bristol was his first win with RFK Racing since his 2015 Xfinity Series championship campaign.
“It took a long time and it was really cool because everyone at RFK has had some issues over the years and I’ve seen the heyday and the absolute highs and also seen the lows along the way,” said Büscher. “Bending that curve to get back to where we can fight for wins again and get some wins is really special for me and everyone at the company.
“I have so many friends within the organization that I’ve known for most of my time in North Carolina, and that’s something that means just a little bit more when you see these guys and girls who have really put so much effort into it during this time to see progress. Brad is a champion of our sport and has won I don’t even know how many races. I think it’s very special to start with, but we’re not done yet. This is not our peak. We have a lot of potential for the future and we will stick to it.
“We might as well go back to my home track and continue here, right?”
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