Six drivers have won three or more NASCAR Cup Series races in 2023 — William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher.
Buescher, an eighth-year driver in the midst of his second postseason run, might be the outlier on that list that features three former champions, the series’ win leader this season and a 51-time winner overall. But his resume speaks for itself in 2023 alone with three wins, eight top fives, 15 top 10s and an average finish of 12.3 that ranks third among full-time racers behind only Byron and Chase Elliott.
There is little doubt RFK Racing‘s Buescher belongs in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Playoffs.
“I think we’re not at a point where we can be ignored anymore,” Buescher said in a Wednesday media teleconference. “We’ve made it a long way this season. We’ve outrun a lot of what were considered favorites from the get-go on the year, and we’ve outrun them very consistently through the second half of the season — even a little more so.
“To me, like I said, I don’t know what everyone else is feeling. But I would say you’re gonna 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.”
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The only other time Buescher was a member of the NASCAR Playoffs was 2016, the result of a weather-shortened victory at Pocono Raceway during his rookie campaign while driving the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford.
Mother Nature has nothing to do with the Texas native‘s success these days. Buescher stormed to Victory Lane in three of the final five races of the regular season, a stretch that included back-to-back wins at 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway and 2-mile Michigan International Speedway before snagging another checkered flag at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Not bad for a driver who snapped a 222-race drought at Bristol in 2022.
In fact, that win was key in encouraging the No. 17 Ford‘s pilot that he and his crew were capable of a deep playoff run this season.
As one of eight competitors left fighting for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, that belief has manifested into something tangible.
“This started last year for us,” Buescher said. “I was pretty confident where we got to at the end of the season that if we could improve upon where we ended, we would have a very good shot at this. It was set as a goal for our entire company at the beginning of the year was to take both of our cars deep into the playoffs — certainly an expectation for us.
“I think that we figured we were capable of this very early on. Our West Coast Swing was a little rocky to start the season. But it didn’t take but about four or five weeks, maybe six weeks, to start finding some momentum and get in a decent place. We got to the point where two and a half months into the season in, really started feeling like we were in the hunt.
“It came up pretty quickly for us this season. It wasn’t always probably apparent to a casual fan, but we measure our week in so many different ways internally that we could certainly see the progression and the opportunity ahead of us. And finally being able to really grab those wins later in the season really cemented it for everybody in the industry to see.”
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With his sudden jolt of wins came well-deserved kudos from his competitors, who have seen the soon-to-be 31-year-old grind in the Cup Series over the past eight years. But performing at this stage of the season with so much on the line? Those congratulatory messages may not be as frequent as they were in August.
“I think at this point, we’ve probably worn out our welcome,” Buescher said. “… A lot of people that would have given advice before now probably aren’t going to at this point as we’ve been able to get this far. So you know, in a lot of ways we’re keeping with the status quo, what we know has gotten us to this point. Again, we’ve been in a good spot through every cutoff through the playoffs thus far. And I think we’re very capable of making it into this next one.”
Buescher will need to improve some stats if he wants to advance to Phoenix based on points. In a combined 36 career starts at Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville — the three ovals scheduled for the Round of 8 — Buescher has just two top-10 results with a best finish in the Next Gen era of 13th last year at Homestead.
But setting new milestones is what Buescher has done all season. His eight top fives and 15 top 10s, 15.1 average starting spot and 12.7 average finish are all career bests with still four races remaining in 2023.
“This is not coming as a surprise to us whatsoever,” Buescher said. “We’re thrilled to be here. And I’m happy to be halfway there on our goals for the season and our expectations. But we’ve got work to do yet. We’re not done.”