LAS VEGAS — Those watching Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway doubtless focused on the action at the front of the field.
Indeed, it was riveting to witness the slugfest between the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas and the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets.
Those two flagship organizations settled the issue between them, with JGR’s Denny Hamlin winning the 61st race of his career, and Hendrick’s Chase Elliott and William Byron running second and third, respectively.
JGR’s Christopher Bell, the pole winner, and teammate Ty Gibbs were fourth and fifth.
The fight for the victory was intense and, at times, flashy—notably at the start of the second stage when Byron, Elliott and teammate Kyle Larson ganged up on Bell in a foursome that ran through the tri-oval inches apart.
What was happening behind the frontrunners was nondescript and easy to overlook, given the stature of the drivers competing for the win.
Nevertheless, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing managed to make a statement of its own. Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Ford grew stronger as the race progressed, running in the top five in the final stage before finishing sixth—the only non-Gibbs or non-Hendrick entry in the top eight.
“It was just everybody on this team doing a fantastic job,” Buescher said after the race. “Good momentum. Good work all weekend long. Practice wasn’t really strong for us, but they did a great job to give me a fast hotrod for qualifying which put us in a good spot for the race (10th).
“So just steadily worked forward. I was able to take this Smith’s/Farm Rich Ford Mustang and just keep plugging ahead, getting a couple of spots every restart, spots on pit road. It’s just everybody doing a good job. A little work to do yet, but solid first real mile-and-a-half (track). It gives us a good idea where we’re at.”
Buescher is ninth in the standings, 109 points behind series leader Tyler Reddick but only 48 points behind Bubba Wallace in second.
Team co-owner Brad Keselowski, who finished 10th on Sunday after qualifying 28th, is 12th in points, one spot ahead of RFK teammate Ryan Preece, who qualified eighth and finished 11th at Las Vegas.
The bottom line is this: in a revised championship format under which the top 16 drivers in the standings qualify for a 10-race Chase, all three RFK drivers currently occupy Chase-eligible positions.
RFK’s performance hasn’t been ostentatious or conspicuous. Collectively, the three drivers have led 22 laps in five races this season. That’s a far cry from Bell’s 225 or Hamlin’s 152.
On the other hand, Keselowski, Buescher and Preece haven’t been making terminal mistakes. Their pit crews are solid and their cars are well-built.
What RFK lacks is elite speed, which Keselowski readily acknowledges. But that hasn’t quelled his ambitions.
“We want a breakout,” said Keselowski, who has been driving all season while recovering from a broken femur. “My goal for the year is for RFK to win five races. We need more speed to do that. I like the execution we have. I think all three teams have run really smart races. I’m really proud of them. I’m proud that our cars are not falling apart. Mechanically, they’re sound.
“We’ve got some great mechanics and great work going on. Our pit stops have been, across all three teams, really strong and very high-level. If we can just find some pace… We need to find and need a little bit of pace. (Team Penske’s) Ryan Blaney and the 12 car, I think, is the fastest Ford on pretty much a weekly basis, and they just have a lot of pace.
“We have everything but that. I like the moves the drivers are making. Even when I just remove myself, I like the moves that Chris and Ryan are making. I like the pit stops. I like how the cars stay together. I like the strategy. We just need pace. If we can develop a little bit of pace, we can be a very dangerous team—our company, our organization across all three teams.”
