Tag: RFK Racing

NASCAR’s record fine quickly becoming quite the conundrum

Brad Keselowski believes NASCAR has found itself in a conundrum. A $75,000 fine to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. earlier this week was the largest in history issued to a driver for fighting. As a result, NASCAR did the seemingly impossible in uniting the fan …

Brad Keselowski believes NASCAR has found itself in a conundrum.

A $75,000 fine to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. earlier this week was the largest in history issued to a driver for fighting. As a result, NASCAR did the seemingly impossible in uniting the fan base and the garage area in the belief that the fine amount was surprising and contradictory to the sport continuously promoting the fight between Stenhouse and Kyle Busch.

On the one hand, actions have consequences. On the other, such actions also drive media attention.

“If I’m NASCAR, certainly I want to be careful about the message I’m sending through the garage area and even more than the garage area, through the other levels of the sport about what may or may not be acceptable,” Keselowski said. “I understand why they need to react, but then I also understand this competing agenda of [how] it garners attention whenever there are fights in the garage area because it communicates a level of passion, and passion itself is not a bad thing.”

NASCAR’s official YouTube page has multiple videos of the fight and its aftermath. The footage of Stenhouse and Busch in the garage has 275,000 views. There were also multiple posts about the fight, different angles of the altercation, in-car audio, and other related content on NASCAR’s social media pages.

The incident also reached mainstream media throughout the week. NASCAR issued its penalty to Stenhouse Wednesday. Ricky Stenhouse Sr. and two JTG Daugherty Racing crew members were issued suspensions.

“I think it’s just this spot that our sport is in where it’s like, ‘Hey, we want the attention. We want people to like us. We want people to talk about us,’” Keselowski continued. “We don’t always get that when we have great events. It seems kind of silly to me – we’ve had some great races this year, and some of the moments that I think we would like to break through as a sport to nontraditional media … doesn’t seem to do that.

“Then someone throws a punch and all of a sudden we’re on all kinds of traditional media. I just have a lot of empathy for NASCAR. If I was in their shoes, I don’t know how I’d handle it any differently.”

Chase Elliott knew that Stenhouse got fined but he was shocked in the Charlotte Motor Speedway media center at how much the fine ended up being.

“That’s a lot of money,” Elliott said. “That seems wild to me. Yeah, that seems like a lot for that situation.

“You’re going to fine him, but you’re going to promote with it? Like, what are we doing? That’s a little strange to me. … It’s not OK, but we’re going to blast it all over everything to get more clicks. I don’t really agree with that.”

JTG Daugherty Racing has until 5 p.m. ET Tuesday to appeal the penalties. In the meantime, Stenhouse continues to hear drivers like Elliott, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and others, and even the fans disagree with him being penalized for showing his emotion while bringing attention to the sport.

Daniel Suarez was one driver who reacted on social media soon after the fine was announced. He reposted the NASCAR tweet with the penalty details and said, “If it’s so wrong, then why is it all over NASCAR social channels? We should be allowed to show our emotions, I don’t get it …”

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Suarez reiterated his feelings when asked about them Saturday before practice for the Coca-Cola 600.

“I just think that it’s very important to show emotions and to show personalities,” he said. “We have had several conversations with many people in NASCAR at all different levels, and the fans want to see personalities. They want to see emotions. Who is Daniel Suarez? Who is Ricky Stenhouse? Who is Chase Elliott? Who are all these people?

“In my mind, if we go down this route, eventually, every single driver is going to act exactly the same because we can’t show anything. I don’t think it’s a good thing in the long run, but that’s just my opinion and I could be wrong. The other thing is, I felt that [the fine] was a little bit excessive.”

Ryan Preece also didn’t like the fine amount and said he wouldn’t be able to race because he wouldn’t be able to pay it. Joey Logano said all that matters is that NASCAR is consistent about what is OK to do and what is not, and what is the price to pay if a driver does do something.

NASCAR has not offered many details on the penalties as they await for the fine to be paid or the penalties to be appealed. But the indication was that they stemmed from how long Stenhouse had to calm down between what happened on the racetrack and confronting Busch.

NASCAR being criticized for perceived inconsistencies is not new. Denny Hamlin is hearing the same this week about the penalties but feels NASCAR has always reacted one way when it’s a heat-of-the-moment confrontation versus one that happens after some time has passed.

“Still, it’s kind of unprecedented from a number standpoint,” Hamlin admitted.

Promoting the same incident that resulted in penalties doesn’t surprise him either.

“That’s been going on for a really long time,” he said. “I think there have certainly been things that they quietly like to root for, but publicly they have to do something different because they don’t want it to get out of hand. I don’t know how much more it really gets out of hand. Certainly, I think with that dollar [amount] fine, you are going to have people think, ‘I don’t want that.’ So you might not get what you probably are hoping for if you’re NASCAR. It might hurt a little bit in that instance.

“But I think they are OK with general altercations. I think … it was the amount of time that elapsed between the incident and when (the fight) happened that got them off guard.”

Cam Waters joins RFK Racing for NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma in 2024

Cam Waters will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut with RFK Racing at Sonoma Raceway in June 2024.

[autotag]RFK Racing[/autotag] teased that an announcement for the No. 60 car was coming, and it lived up to the hype. On Tuesday morning, RFK Racing announced that [autotag]Cam Waters[/autotag] will drive the No. 60 car in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway in June. Waters is a Supercars Championship driver who has made two starts with ThorSport Racing in the NASCAR Truck Series.

The 29-year-old driver made his NASCAR debut in 2024 and now has a start lined up for the Cup Series. RFK Racing previously won at Darlington when Brad Keselowski beat Ty Gibbs, so the equipment is good enough for Waters to run well. Yet, the expectations shouldn’t be too high as Waters will be making his Cup Series debut.

The No. 60 car has only entered one other race during the 2024 NASCAR season, with David Ragan piloting the entry in the Daytona. Since Keselowski joined the team, this is only the second time that RFK Racing will have more than two entries on the race track. It will be fascinating to see how Waters runs in his debut, as Sonoma is a unique track.

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Waters to make NASCAR Cup debut with RFK at Sonoma

Australian Supercars driver Cam Waters will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut with RFK Racing next month at Sonoma Raceway. Waters will be in the team’s third entry, which is called ‘Stage 60’. The effort debuted with David Ragan behind the wheel in …

Australian Supercars driver Cam Waters will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut with RFK Racing next month at Sonoma Raceway.

Waters will be in the team’s third entry, which is called ‘Stage 60′. The effort debuted with David Ragan behind the wheel in the season-opening Daytona 500 and Sonoma will be the entry’s second event.

RFK Racing first teased the announcement with a video on social media on Monday. The full video was released on Tuesday, and it’s revealed to be Waters making his way through the race shop. Waters and team co-owner Brad Keselowski shake hands and say it’ll be Sonoma where Waters joins the team.

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Waters competes for Tickford Racing in Supercars and is an 11-time winner and two-time runner-up. His resume also includes being the youngest driver to have competed in the Bathurst 1000, where he has three consecutive podium finishes.

“This opportunity for me is a dream come true and one that I do not take lightly given the global audience of NASCAR and the Cup Series,” Waters said per NASCAR.com. “I’ve been fortunate to dip my toes into the NASCAR waters a bit this year and am excited to put my road-racing experience to the test this summer. It takes a village to make something like this come to fruition.”

Waters made his NASCAR debut last month at Martinsville Speedway in the Craftsman Truck Series with ThorSport Racing. He finished 30th after being involved in a late-race incident. Waters also ran at Kansas Speedway with the team and finished 19th.

“Cam has certainly logged his share of miles the last couple of months flying back and forth from Australia, but he’s done a great job familiarizing himself with NASCAR and working with David Ragan in our simulator,” said Mark Rushbrook, Ford Performance Motorsports’ global director. “It’s always exciting when we can have someone from another part of our global motorsports family compete in a different series, and we feel this is a great opportunity for him to showcase his talent. We’re grateful to RFK for initiating this Stage 60 program, and we’re looking forward to Sonoma.”

Buescher frustrated again by late-race Darlington scuffle

Chris Buescher described Sunday at Darlington Raceway as good, hard racing until it wasn’t, as he struggled to understand Tyler Reddick’s move that took them both out of contention for the victory. Buescher was leading the Goodyear 400 going into …

Chris Buescher described Sunday at Darlington Raceway as good, hard racing until it wasn’t, as he struggled to understand Tyler Reddick’s move that took them both out of contention for the victory.

Buescher was leading the Goodyear 400 going into Turn 3 with 10 laps to go when Reddick drove to the inside. As he ran up against the wall, Buescher’s RFK Racing Ford Mustang wiggled and caught the wall with the right front. Nearly simultaneously, Reddick came up the track and collided with Buescher, sending the No. 17 back into the outside wall.

The contact cut down a right-side tire for Reddick, and he fell off the pace down the frontstretch. Buescher fell off the pace with a flat left rear tire going down the backstretch, giving the lead to teammate and RFK co-owner Brad Keselowski.

“They got side-by-side and got checked up, and we got by completely clean and was trying to take care of stuff but run hard,” Buescher said of having taken the lead with 30 laps to go when Keselowski and Reddick bounced off each other off Turn 4. “[He] just went for a move there that was never going to happen and wiped us both out. It was hard enough that we wheel hopped into the fence; it’s not just a door-to-door contact and a little push and shove. It ruined both of our days.

“I’m really frustrated by that; really [angry] about it. I don’t get it. We’ve been able to race clean for how long, and to take our group, this Fifth Third Bank No. 17 team, out of contention for a trophy — for another week to miss out on it, it’s starting to hurt.”

Buescher finished 30th after leading 21 laps. He finished seventh in both stages.

On pit road after the race, a visibly frustrated Buescher confronted Reddick. Buescher said the two have never had previous issues with each other.

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“I’m struggling to understand the reason,” he said.

Of their conversation, Reddick admitted that everything Buescher said to him was accurate. The 23XI driver took responsibility for being aggressive after Buescher had raced him clean.

“I appreciate him saying he screwed up,” Buescher said. “We haven’t had issues in the past. That being said, it doesn’t change what just happened. There is a win sticker on his door top that I told him about that makes a bad day like this not matter near as much to them. But it still matters to us.

“That was a major cost to us today, not only for a win but to finish (30th) because of a flat tire. Fortunately we got stage points on the day from running well, but one poor decision and saying sorry doesn’t fix it.”

Keselowski went on to win the race after his teammate’s misfortune. The victory broke Ford’s winless streak and was the first for Keselowski as co-owner of RFK Racing.

For the second straight week, though, Buescher was left with nothing to show for his performance. He’s led 75 laps in the last two races.

“There’s plenty of positive out of it,” Buescher said. “There’s a fight in this team right now that no single on-track accident is going to take away from us. There’s speed there, obviously, with Brad winning a race. That’s huge – I’m trying to calm down and get all this right. Congrats to Brad on a huge win; that’s awesome.

“But man, to be in contention and be wiped out, selfishly, it’s hurting me, and we got to get back on track and get back in the hunt for one of these things and just try to find a clean run to the finish.”

Keselowski finally finds victory lane once again at Darlington

A combination of stubbornness and patience paid off handsomely for Brad Keselowski on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, where the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford ended a 110-race winless streak with victory in the Goodyear 400. …

A combination of stubbornness and patience paid off handsomely for Brad Keselowski on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, where the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford ended a 110-race winless streak with victory in the Goodyear 400.

Keselowski’s triumph, which came at the expense of hard-luck teammate Chris Buescher and pole winner Tyler Reddick, gave the Ford Dark Horse Mustang its first NASCAR Cup Series victory this season in 13 races and led to a heated exchange between Beuscher and Reddick on pit road after the fact.

It was also Keselowski’s first win as a principal in RFK Racing, his second at Darlington and the 36th of his career.

“What a heck of a day,” exulted Keselowski, who finished 1.214s ahead of runner-up Ty Gibbs. “It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win, your last win, this is a really special track. The history of NASCAR, it’s as tough as it gets, and that battle at the end with my teammate and Tyler Reddick, we just laid it all out on the line, it was freaking awesome.

“I thought it couldn’t get much better than Kansas. It did today. That was awesome. I’m so glad you guys got to see that (addressed to the fans). That was incredible. Thanks for being here.”

Keselowski was stubborn in the way he raced Reddick after the final restart on lap 261 of 293, aggressively staying beside the No. 45 Toyota and running him up the track in Turn 3.

For four straight laps, Keselowski and Reddick battled side-by-side, allowing Buescher to slip past into the lead at the start/finish line on lap 264. Reddick cleared Keselowski shortly thereafter and took off in pursuit of Buescher.

 

That’s when Keselowski exercised patience as stayed within striking distance, waiting for the drama that unfolded ahead of him.

On lap 284, Reddick’s ill-timed bid for the lead went awry, and his No. 45 Camry slid up the track into Buescher’s Ford, pinning it against the outside wall in Turn 4. Both cars were damaged and unable to maintain pace, and Keselowski charged into the lead on Lap 285.

 

Buescher, still smarting from last week’s loss to Kyle Larson at Kansas in the closest finish in Cup Series history (0.001s), confronted Reddick on pit road after the drivers climbed from their cars.

“We got wrecked,” Buescher said later. “That one’s clear as day. Don’t need any cameras to tell us. I don’t know what to say. We’ve raced really clean through the years, tried to be really respectful about it, and we get used up.

“It (Reddick’s move) is just something that you know is not going to work. I’m just really [angry] about it right now. We certainly had a chance to win another one. I’m proud to have that speed. Just huge congratulations to Brad and the No. 6 bunch on their win. That’s awesome, but I wanted it for our group right here.”

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Reddick took responsibility for the incident and punctuated his conversation with Buescher with the words “I know. I [screwed] up—I’m sorry.”

Reddick elaborated after he and Buescher separated.

“I completely understand where he is coming from,” Reddick said. “He was running the top, running his own race, running his own line to keep me at bay. I made a really aggressive move and was hoping I was going to clear him. When I realized I wasn’t going to, I tried to check up to not slide up into him, but, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that.

“I completely understand why he is that mad. He did nothing wrong. Just trying to win the race, and to take myself out—that’s one thing—I can live with that, but just disappointed it played out the way that it did, and I took him out of the race as well.”

All but lost in the late-race drama was Gibbs’ career-best second-place finish. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota also finished second in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2 behind respective stage winners Kyle Larson and Reddick.

Josh Berry finished third in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, followed by Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley and Michael McDowell completed the top 10.

Hamlin led one lap during a cycle of green-flag pit stops in the final stage, extending his streak of consecutive races with at least one lap led to 17.

Larson (34th on Sunday after a late-race crash) leads the series standings by 30 points over Martin Truex Jr., who finished 25th after suffering alternator issues.

RESULTS

RFK Racing teases big NASCAR announcement in Cup Series for 2024

RFK Racing teases a big NASCAR Cup Series announcement during the 2024 season. What is RFK Racing planning for the No. 60 car?

[autotag]RFK Racing[/autotag] was on the wrong end of NASCAR history at Kansas Speedway. Chris Buescher lost to Kyle Larson by 0.001 seconds, the closest NASCAR Cup Series finish ever. Now, Buescher and RFK Racing must look forward and leave this finish in the rearview mirror. In fact, the NASCAR team is now teasing an announcement about an exciting development.

The “Stage 60” account on X hadn’t posted since David Ragan’s attempt at the 2024 Daytona 500, but that changed on Wednesday morning. After an almost three-month absence, “Stage 60” posted a picture of the No. 60 car with the caption, “Who’s next?” This likely means RFK Racing is preparing for a big announcement regarding its No. 60 car.

Who could drive the No. 60 car in 2024? ThorSport Racing driver Ty Majeski is one name previously linked to RFK Racing. Also, Supercars Championship driver Cam Waters, who competed for ThorSport Racing in two NASCAR Truck Series races, has been mentioned. It’ll be interesting to see what RFK Racing does next, as an announcement could be on the way.

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Larson beats Buescher in closest finish in NASCAR history at Kansas

Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher in the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history Sunday night at Kansas Speedway. The margin of victory was 0.001s in the AdventHealth 400. Larson went outside Buescher through Turns 3 and 4, which Buescher tried to …

Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher in the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history Sunday night at Kansas Speedway.

The margin of victory was 0.001s in the AdventHealth 400. Larson went outside Buescher through Turns 3 and 4, which Buescher tried to slow down by crowding the Hendrick Motorsports driver. The two wound up in a drag race off the corner, banging doors once as they moved down the track toward the apron before crossing the finish line.

It was unclear at first who had won the race. After reviewing its high-speed camera, NASCAR called Larson and the No. 5 team to victory lane.

 

“I don’t know. That was wild,” Larson said. “I was obviously thankful for that caution; we were dying pretty bad and was happy to come out [of pit road] third and figured my best shot was to choose the bottom and just try to split three wide to the inside. It worked out; my car turned well and I got some runs. I got through [Turns 1 and 2] really good down the backstretch and had a big tow on Chris and got him to kind of enter shallow, and I just committed really hard up top.

“I wasn’t quite sure if we were going to make it out the other side; I got super loose in the center, and then I’m trying not to get too far ahead of him to where he can side draft, and then I was just trying to kill his run. It was just crazy.

“That race from the start to finish was amazing. That first stage was incredible, the second stage at the end was fun and then that whole last stage with the wrecks and cautions and then fuel strategy and tires running long and all that was wild. You guys got your money’s worth today, and I’m just proud to be a part of the show.”

The victory was Larson’s second of the season and second at Kansas Speedway. It is the 25th of his career. He led 63 laps.

Buescher was on the losing side of history while earning his second runner-up finish of the season. The RFK Racing driver was left in disbelief afterward.

“I don’t know what to say right now. I haven’t seen a replay other than a picture and I sure can’t see it in that picture,” said Buescher, who led 54 laps. “That sucks to be that close. … It was a great finish for us, a really strong day, and a lot of speed in this Castrol Edge Ford Mustang, and we really needed that. Needed a win more and thought we might have had that one. We had a lot of speed there firing off, we were really good really all day, and I’m really proud of that. We had some good strategy to get us back up there and tried to cover what I could, and gave him half a lane too much, I suppose. Good, hard race there down to the line. Yeah, that hurts.”

Chase Elliott finished third, edging out Martin Truex Jr. at the finish line. The two were quickly closing on the top two coming to the checkered flag.

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Denny Hamlin finished fifth. He led a race-high 71 laps and was the leader going into overtime. Hamlin, however, restarted on the bottom, and was put three wide when Larson dove inside him and Buescher.

The race’s final caution to set up overtime was for a sole spin by Kyle Busch. The Richard Childress Racing driver was running fifth when he went for a long spin through Turn 2.

Hamlin was leading Truex and Larson at the time of the caution. Hamlin, Buescher, Larson, and six other drivers took two tires on pit road. Truex came off pit road 10th as the first driver with four tires.

For the overtime restart, Hamlin and Buescher were on the front row, with Larson and Elliott in the second. Ryan Blaney and Noah Gragson were in the third row, John Hunter Nemechek and Alex Bowman in the fourth, and then Corey Heim and Truex in the fifth.

Truex made quick work to get himself into the top five. Buescher led Larson and Truex at the white flag.

Completing the top 10 finishers were Christopher Bell in sixth place, Alex Bowman in seventh, Busch in eighth, Noah Gragson in ninth and Michael McDowell in 10th. Bell started from the pole and led five laps.

Stages 1 and 2 went caution-free. There were five cautions in the final stage.

There were 27 changes among 10 drivers. Hamlin won the first stage, and Buescher won the second stage.

RESULTS

‘Raw speed’ the missing piece in Keselowski’s quest for victory

Brad Keselowski continues to believe his RFK Racing team is one step away from returning to NASCAR Cup series victory lane. “Just need a little bit more raw speed,” Keselowski said. “We need to show up at racetracks and be a threat for the pole, run …

Brad Keselowski continues to believe his RFK Racing team is one step away from returning to NASCAR Cup series victory lane.

“Just need a little bit more raw speed,” Keselowski said. “We need to show up at racetracks and be a threat for the pole, run the fastest lap in the race. Do those types of things. We’ve done that … at Bristol, we haven’t done that enough at other places. That’s what we’re looking for.”

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Keselowski’s winless streak is now 103 races old, dating back to the spring of 2021 at Talladega Superspeedway. The victory was his last with Team Penske before joining forces with Jack Roush as driver and co-owner. Keselowski has yet to win driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, but he’s been to victory lane four times as co-owner of Chris Buescher’s No. 17.

Entering the first road course race of the season at Circuit of the Americas (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET, Fox), Keselowski, who has not yet won on a road course in the Cup Series, is 13th in the championship standings and Buescher is 14th. Buescher has three top-10 finishes to Keselowski’s pair.

“I thought at Phoenix our teams looked really similar,” Keselowski said of the gap between the two teams. “Atlanta, we looked pretty similar. Daytona, we looked pretty similar. We didn’t look very similar at Las Vegas; I thought the 17 was stronger than the 6 car was there.

“Those things come and go for various reasons, there’s not one thing on any given week. You want the crew chiefs to have a little bit of freedom to do what they want to do with their engineers and try different things, and when that gets too far apart for too long, you try to rein it back in, and there’s an ebb and flow to that. But for the most part, I feel like we’re pretty close.”

The winless streak is not something Keselowski has concerned himself with as he’s worked to integrate himself and help carry RFK Racing forward. But Keselowski also doesn’t mind being asked how close he feels to winning or what the team is missing.

“No, no, no,” he said. “It’s the right question to ask. It’s the question we ask of ourselves.”

Fortunately, Keselowski and his group is much closer to making that happen than they were in their first year together.

“Oh yeah, we’re way closer than we were 24 months ago,” Keselowski said. “But that’s not good enough.”

RFK Racing representatives spotted in the IMSA paddock amid rumors

RFK Racing representatives were spotted in the IMSA paddock amid rumors of a potential entry. Could RFK Racing join IMSA soon?

[autotag]RFK Racing[/autotag] has talked about expanding into other series outside of NASCAR, but it hasn’t happened yet as they focus on the Cup Series. Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher have improved every year in the NextGen car but are searching for their first win in 2024. Also, RFK Racing appears to be flirting with other racing series’ at the same time.

According to RACER’s Marshall Pruett, RFK Racing representatives were spotted in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring paddock for IMSA last week. This comes as Keselowski expressed interest in expanding to IMSA before the 2024 season. Any entry into IMSA would likely come at the beginning of the 2025 season.

This would be a significant move for RFK Racing, as the organization appears serious about the possibility. It would help grow the NASCAR organization’s brand, but Keselowski previously mentioned that a third charter is a priority. Could RFK Racing join IMSA in the near future? It appears this could be the case in 2025.

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Buescher earns a ‘huge’ second place finish at Phoenix

Chris Buescher turned a quiet day for his RFK Racing team into a much-needed second-place finish Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Buescher’s No. 17 Ford Mustang Dark Horse team made the call to stay out for track position when the final caution flew on …

Chris Buescher turned a quiet day for his RFK Racing team into a much-needed second-place finish Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

Buescher’s No. 17 Ford Mustang Dark Horse team made the call to stay out for track position when the final caution flew on lap 215. It moved Buescher into the top five for the restart inside the final 92 laps. He did so while managing fuel over the final stint, which later allowed him to make a charge to second place.

“That’s huge,” Buescher said. “We’ve been able to lead races at any point in all three races leading up to this [one]. We didn’t quite get there today, but certainly a great finish for our BuildSubs.com Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of everybody. This is a good try.”

Buescher qualified 14th for the Shriners Children’s 500 and earned an average running position of 12.4 throughout the afternoon. After not scoring any points in the first stage (finishing 17th), he was 10th at the end of the second stage.

In the final stage, the No. 17 was running 17th when the final caution came out, and the team elected to stay on track. It initially moved him to fourth, and he chose the inside lane to be third on the restart. Once crew chief Scott Graves and the team were confident on fuel, Buescher was given the call inside the final 20 laps to go hard.

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Buescher took second place from Ty Gibbs with eight laps to go, but was 5.4s behind Christopher Bell at the finish.

“What thrills me is we were by no means perfect on balance, so we have a lot of room to make this thing better, which is awesome,” Buescher said. “It tells me we can go compete for that thing.”

Sunday was Buescher’s second top-five finish at Phoenix in the last two races. It was his first top-five finish of the season, and it came a week after an early exit from the Las Vegas race when the right front wheel came off his Ford, which resulted in the suspension of two crew members.

RFK Racing filed an appeal over the penalty and NASCAR deferred the suspensions. Buescher had his usual crew on pit road at Phoenix.

“We had a rough go last week and this is good to get everybody back together and prove that we’re in this together, that we’re going to win and lose these things as a team,” Buescher said. “That was almost a win today. We were close in a way, but I couldn’t even see [Bell], so that was going to be a tough one to battle for a win.

“Really impressed with everybody today; they did a heck of a job and worked hard to get back up where we needed to be there at the end. I was able to save just enough fuel to be able to go 100 percent there at the end and at least get one more spot and get to second. Really proud of that.”