The smile on Chris Buescher’s face was a bit out-of-place during his media availability on Wednesday afternoon as he evaluated the challenging start to the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Yes, his runner-up result at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday came with a wave of positive energy, but the truth is there has been more rain than sunshine for the RFK Racing camp since the year began.
In four races, the No. 17 Ford has an average finish of 16.5.
Aside from his success at Phoenix, Buescher brought his RFK entry home in 18th at the Daytona 500, scraped his way into ninth at Atlanta Motor Speedway and limped the car home in 37th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after the right-front wheel flew off.
“We’ve got a full dumpster around here of race car parts,” Buescher quipped.
And yet, the Texas native is happy with how the season has been going.
“We’ve had a lot of speed every single place we’ve gone, we’ve been able to lead laps at the first three races,” Buescher said. “We’re not the dominant car at this point, but we’re certainly sneaking up on it and feel like we have the ability to get there.”
Though his results were more impressive during the opening four-race stretch last year (fourth, 13th, 21st, 15th), Buescher is adamant that RFK has fired off better this time around.
“The big focus for us was to make sure that our first eight races were competitive. Last season, I felt like that’s where we missed it. It’s where we felt like we got behind and it took us way too far in the season to find what that was,” Buescher said.
The good thing for RFK is the team is not searching for speed. Rather, they’re working on cleaning up the details — that includes “decisions on restarts, timing on pit road and developing setups that are already proven to be competitive.”
The other angle working in their favor is their performance during the back half of the 2023 season. After making it into the Round of 8 during the playoffs — a career feat for Buescher — the No. 17 team has a strong baseline to work from.
“We’ll work through being human at times, but certainly when you’re looking for the things that we are, it just feels more feasible,” Buescher said.
He’s not worried that he’s only accumulated two stage points thus far, and it’s not even because of how early in the season it is.
“We’re not points racing this year. We gotta win races, we’re capable of winning races and when we go do that, the rest will fall in line,” Buescher said. “I don’t think we’re a team that’s gonna sit here and say we’re gonna have to battle for this bubble spot of 15th, 16th, 17th for point to try and break into the playoffs.
“That’s not gonna be our season.”
This Sunday, Buescher is returning to familiar territory at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. He’s a former winner at the high-banked, .533-mile concrete oval and will look to visit victory lane again during the Food City 500.