DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In a regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway where 20 full-time competitors need to win in order to make the 2025 playoffs, Michael McDowell coined the desperation level as “messy.” RFK Racing, which has resurrected to become one of the Ford powerhouses once again, has all three drivers in must-win mode.
With Austin Dillon’s upset victory last weekend at Richmond Raceway, Chris Buescher dipped below the playoff elimination line by 60 points. He’s 17th on the playoff grid with RFK teammate Ryan Preece close behind in 18th on the playoff grid.
The objective is simple for the RFK teammates: win. Buescher won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 two seasons ago, holding off fellow teammate and co-owner Brad Keselowski. The 2012 champion can’t be forgotten about either, as a summer surge has launched him up the driver standings. Yet, the seven-time superspeedway winner will be another driver in despair on Saturday.
“Win the race,” Keselowski put it simply on Friday at Daytona about the No. 6 team’s strategy. “You try to plan for races that have so much chaos and it’s absurd to do that. You try to survive and win at the end.”
And though only a maximum of one RFK car can qualify for the postseason, it’s better that the three-car team collaborates rather than making each other’s races more miserable.
“The way I look at this race is our jobs are to get up in the first few rows and work with each other to get there,” Preece said. “But if Brad and Chris are in the first two rows, it’s my job to find myself there to work with them and put RFK or one of us in position coming to the line winning.”
The betterment for the organization is getting one car into the postseason, no matter which of the three it is. Buescher was in a similar position last year, ranking above the top 16 on regular season points but enough winners dropped him below the elimination line. The primary goal for the No. 17 team in 2025 was to get off to a better start. Mission accomplished, but not capturing a checkered flag early could haunt Buescher in consecutive seasons.
Race strategy has been discussed multiple times this week at RFK. Continuously, the team works strongly together at superspeedways, including Buescher and Keselowski being bolted to each other in the most recent drafting-style event at EchoPark Speedway where the No. 6 car finished runner-up to Chase Elliott.
“We’ve been able to find ourselves towards the front of these races and it’s hard to win them,” Buescher stated. “So much happens in those closing laps, but you’ve got to make the best decisions you can in the moment and it’s not really feasible to say you’re three cars acting as one the entire time. You do your best, but a lot of times there’s just not the opportunity to keep three cars in a line pushing and making best speed at all given points.”
Over the last handful of years, Ford, specifically, Team Penske, has dominated superspeedways. Keselowski has been close to victory multiple times since last winning at a drafting-style track in 2021 at Talladega Superspeedway. Superspeedways are one of the primary strengths of RFK and the owner believes the clock could strike midnight on Saturday.
“I feel like we’re due,” Keselowski said of RFK’s chances of returning to Victory Lane on a superspeedway. “We’ve had a lot of great runs. Ryan had a shot to win at Talladega and missed by a few feet. I’ve had[three] second-place runs in the last year-and-a-half on the [superspeedways]. I feel like we’re in a good spot to get one.”
Preece and Buescher’s chemistry predates their time at RFK, as the duo was teammates at JTG Daugherty Racing in 2019 and 2020. He can’t predict how the 400-mile event will play out, but has the confidence that the three-car team will be
“If you’re gonna try to win this race, I guarantee you’re gonna have to go through an RFK car to win,” Preece added. “I feel like we’re in a strong position to get one of our cars in and good luck to the other ones that are gonna have to get through us.”
With qualifying getting canceled due to a lightning hold, Keselowski will start the best of the RFK trio in 10th. Buescher will be mired back in 24th position at the start with Preece lining up 31st.