BROOKLYN, Mich. — Chris Buescher, Scott Graves and the RFK Racing No. 17 group have always set the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix in November as their barometer but winning back-to-back races has suddenly made it way more realistic.
In a span of 15 days, Buescher has transitioned from a fringe playoff hopeful to a driver locked into the Round of 16 and now ranked sixth in playoff points with just three races remaining in the regular season.
What if we told him that would be the case over two weeks ago?
“I would say that I hope you’re right and that’s the plan,” Buescher said.
That is the key phrase, the plan, because this level of performance has always been the expectation even after a decade of mediocrity across what used to be Jack Roush Racing and Roush Fenway Racing. The arrival of Brad Keselowski as a co-owner in 2022 has raised expectations.
“We didn’t get there near as quick as we wanted to last season,” Buescher said. “Obviously our win came (during) the Playoffs, so it didn’t elevate (us) to the next level. We weren’t where we needed to be.”
And yet, Buescher and RFK never wavered in the conviction they could become a championship caliber team this year — an unbelievable jump even in this era of increased parity. Buescher said they set three goals in February — win races, make the playoffs and be ‘anything but a placeholder’ once they punched their ticket.
“I feel like we knew we were capable of making the playoffs and winning races at various points through the season,” Buescher said. “Maybe saying we could make the Championship Race was a little bit of a stretch, but we have made improvement throughout the year across every style of track, some massive improvements at some of my worst tracks, like Richmond for instance.”
Can Chris Buescher drive deep into playoffs?
As Keselowski points out, if this speed carries over to the traditional style intermediate tracks, maybe Phoenix isn’t that far-fetched.
“I mean, if our cars run like this at Kansas and Vegas, Texas, Homestead, man, we’ve got a shot of going really deep in the Playoffs,” Keselowski said. “That’s really thrilling. Those are four big races for us but to show this kind of speed, that’s a big statement.”
That’s what sticks out to Graves too, that these two consecutive wins have come on vastly different race tracks, and is an indictment about the overall state of their organization heading into the final 13 races of the season.
“Like I said, I look at the way we won the last two weeks, and it wasn’t by luck or backing into it,” Graves said. “It was something that we just went outright and beat the best people out there. That gives you a lot of confidence going into it. For sure I think we can get to Phoenix.”
All of a sudden, this RFK looks like the Roush of old, the organization that once placed five cars into a 10 car playoff back in 2005. It looks like the same team that won a championship in 2003 with Matt Kenseth, a championship in 2004 with Kurt Busch and the team that arguably should have won it all with Carl Edwards in 2011.
It does not look like the team that was heavily penalized last season for modified parts and never really had a chance at the playoffs based on the points it lost and the overall lack of speed they showed in the first year of the current generation of Cup Series car.
“Yeah, the highs are high and the lows are low over here,” Keselowski said. “We had a lot of lows last year so it’s nice to have these high marks. I don’t take ’em for granted. They mean more to me probably because of how big a struggle last year was for both teams. Probably even more specifically for me. …
“We’ve come so far. We still have a long ways to go to get to where I want us to be, but we’re building some really strong momentum with these wins. I’m just as curious as anyone else to see where it goes from here. I try not to have expectations for good or bad. I just try to do our best, see what that plays out to on the field.”
Buescher, however, has expectations and they’re the same high bars he has set for the past two years.
“Knowing what races are in the Playoffs, what was good for us last season, with the momentum that we’ve had in these wins, it certainly gives you a stronger opinion that, yes, we should be able to make a run at the championship.
“But to be clear, it was always our goal. This was never not in our vision for what we were trying to do on the season.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.