Chris Buescher doesn’t concern himself too much with what his NASCAR Cup Series playoff rivals are thinking, but if anything, he believes they should, by now, be taking his RFK Racing team seriously as a championship player.
“Where I’m at, yeah, we probably made it hard for them not to and I’m proud of that,” Buescher said. “I’m proud of this organization for that and what we’ve been able to accomplish has been huge. I think we’re realistically contenders to make it to the next round. Are we a favorite to win it? That’s probably a little bit hard to say, and I feel like we’ve got some more work to do for us to feel that way, but I certainly feel like we’re capable of making this thing.
“Given the right circumstances and just a few little tweaks along the way, very capable of making a run in Phoenix. To me, I think we’re not at a point where we can be ignored anymore.”
Buescher expressed as much when the postseason started, not shying away from the high expectations his No. 17 RFK Racing team was placing on themselves given how well the regular season went earning three victories. Buescher confidently stated how they are “very competitive” and not underdogs like they were in his first postseason appearance a few years ago.
After advancing out of the first round of the postseason for the first time, Buescher quietly made it through the second round without issue. Sunday afternoon (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC), Buescher will begin the Round of 8 from fifth on the playoff grid. He is three points below a transfer spot.
“We’ve made it a long way this season,” Buescher continued. “We’ve outrun a lot of [people who] were considered favorites from the get-go on the year, and we’ve done that and outrun them very consistently through the second half of the season and even a little more so. I don’t know what everyone else is feeling, but I would say you’re going to have a hard time finding somebody that’s not aware that we’re in this round and that we have an opportunity to make it to the next one.”
Buescher is the last man standing from the RKF Racing camp after teammate Brad Keselowski was eliminated in the last round, and one of only two Ford drivers left in contention.
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Of the final eight drivers, there are two former champions left (Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson) in addition to the the No. 1 seed (William Byron). Toyota has half of the contenders and one of them, Christopher Bell, is the only driver who has a shot at making a return trip to the Championship 4 from last season.
All of that information would be news to Buescher. Although he’s made it into another round, he hasn’t exactly sized up the competition.
“It’s still more focused on what we can do and what we can control,” he said. “It’s more of our own game. This is our decisions to be made. This is our speed to find. Most of the situations that are ahead of us really just need to be what we can control and what we can do as a group to be fast, to be able to make that next round, win races, whatever that may be, and I haven’t really taken that time to step back and look at strong or weak spots for the other teams that are in this final round.
“Honestly, if you asked me right now, I don’t think I could honestly give you the other seven that are in it accurately. I could get most of them, but it’s not to that point where we’re sitting here thinking about the others. At least, I’m not at this point.”
That could change as soon as this weekend.
“Maybe,” Buescher said. “We’ll probably get out of Vegas and get a little bit more of a read on how that weekend went. We’ll look at the two tracks we have ahead of us, figure out where we feel we stand on those, and then maybe put it in perspective where the cars that we’re racing, see which ones of those had a good weekend, a bad weekend and what tracks will suit them well going forward.
“Again, it’s really up to us. It’s up to us to have good days, strong points days for stages, for setting up the win. It’s our battle to win, and it’s our battle to lose, and worrying about others really isn’t going to change that. You just need to be aware of it.”