RFK Racing Trio Eyes Playoff Future as Cup Regular Season Winds Down

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – With five races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, all three RFK Racing Fords have yet to lock themselves into the Playoffs, but team owner Brad Keselowski envisions a future that could see all of them in the postseason – if the circumstances roll their way.

Their battle to make it into the 16-car Playoff field begins this weekend at the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a race that Keselowski has won before, scoring the victory back in 2018.

Currently, Chris Buescher is in the best position of the three RFK entries in the points, sitting 44-points above the cut-off line, while Ryan Preece in just on the outside looking in with a 16-point deficit and Keselowski way back in 27^th in points at -140 below the cut-off line.

As Keselowski sees it, the path to the Playoffs for himself and his drivers goes as follows as the remainder of the regular season goes from this weekend at Indianapolis, to Iowa, Watkins Glen, Richmond, and Daytona.

“The 17 (Buescher) looks to be in a really good position to point their way in. They’ve had really strong runs, very solid. Really proud of the performance of that team,” said Keselowski.

“The 60 (Preece) is kind of like right on that fringe with any new winner. I think they would have to win, but it should be a strong stretch of races. And then the 6 car (Keselowski) just has to win a race, so we’d like to win with all three of ’em and not have to worry about it. And that would be kind of the ideal situation.

“We’ve been on the fringe of that. I think we have a handful of, I think we have second place finishes with all three of our cars, so need to convert those into wins to kind of solidify our position.

“But the last month has been really positive. I think all three cars have shown a lot of potential and we’ve kind of hit our swing in stride, so excited to see what comes of that with these races in front of us all being fairly traditional races that we can hopefully just punch on through with a win.”

Keselowski himself nearly won at Indianapolis a year ago before the fuel strategy they were on went awry in the waning laps. He explained that it should be no surprise if aggressive strategy plays are the name of the game again on Sunday.

“I think we’re really aggressive last year and we almost won the race. I wouldn’t expect anything to change there, and we’ve got no reason not to be very aggressive,” said Keselowski. “I certainly don’t want to just do dumb things just to do them, but this is a race that lends itself to aggressive moves on the track and off the track with pit strategy. So, I suspect the winner will be a part of that story.”

Buescher echoed his team owner’s comments about how the remainder of the regular season lays out for RFK, especially with tracks ahead that they have been successful at in the past.

“We have a lot of good tracks coming up, Iowa was really competitive for us last year. We ended up having a tire failure there, but we were running very well at that time. We get to go defend our win at the Glen,” said Buescher.

“We’ve been able to win Daytona, our superspeedway program at RFK has been really strong for a long time. Richmond is the other one where we got win there to turn my opinions around on that place. I used to despise that one with a passion, but we’re in a better place now.

“So, there’s nothing coming up at us that I’m worried about. I feel like we have five chances to win, really, including at Indy here. We’re going to be really good when we get on track. So, yeah, I’m really looking forward to the stretch for a long time.”

Likewise from Preece, who noted that his path to pointing his way in starts with outscoring his closest rival in the standings, which is currently Kyle Busch, who occupies the 16^th and final transfer spot into the Playoffs.

“I mean all you’re doing is thinking about trying to maximize your day and potentially put yourself in a position to win. If you do that, that fixes everything,” Preece said.

“So yeah, I mean, it’s in the back of my mind. I want to outpoint him each and every week. I’ve got to outpoint Kyle each and every week, so I think if we do that, don’t put ourselves in bad situations, we’re going to be just fine.

Preece added that he also sees a way forward that would see all three of the RFK cars in the Playoffs when all is said and done in Daytona to bring the regular season to its conclusion.

“You look at Brad, you look at Chris, you look at us. We’ve all been had moments to where we potentially had a shot at winning. I would, but I don’t look back at it. So, you look forward,” said Preece.

“You look at this weekend here at the Brickyard, you look at quite a few other ones. Richmond is one I’m actually really eager and excited about. So yeah, I think we’re trying to win our way in, but there’s a path to pointing our way in.”

Buescher will have the best starting position among the three at Indianapolis, qualifying in seventh, with Keselowski in 14th, and Preece in 23rd.