RFK earned a pair of top five finishes Sunday at Phoenix Raceway as Chris Buescher finished second in the BuildSubmarines.com Ford, and Brad Keselowski fourth in the debut for the Consumer Cellular Ford.
The closing laps came down to a fuel mileage race, as the last 100 laps ran all under green. A strategy call worked in the favor of Buescher and the No. 17 team – who consistently ran top-10 by the end of stage two – while Keselowski maintained solid position for the majority of the race.
The pair of top five finishes marks the first time both RFK Fords have finished top five together since the Daytona summer race last year, where Buescher picked up the win and Keselowski finished P2. It also marks the first top five for each driver in 2024.
6 Recap
Keselowski began the afternoon from the 18th position and slowly but surely chiseled his way forward. He finished 14th in an otherwise uneventful opening stage, but the No. 6 pit crew put him inside the top-10 in the stage break as he restarted eighth.
The second stage ran caution-free as Keselowski maintained the ninth position throughout, and picked up a pair of stage points with a P9 finish to end the segment. He fired off seventh for the third and final stage after another strong stop, as three yellows were displayed in the next 20 laps.
Keselowski pitted for right side tires under yellow at lap 214 to restart fourth, and from there maintained the top five position. As a fuel sequence played out in the closing laps, Keselowski powered his way to fourth for his first top five of the season.
“It was a good solid day for us,” Keselowski said. “We want to win these races but we didn’t have anywhere near the speed the 20 car did, I don’t know if anybody did to be quite honest. We put ourselves in good position with a good pit call and a great restart at the end and we just tried to execute. The potential is there. We are just one step away and we are going to keep working on it until we get there.”
17 Recap
Buescher started the day from the 14th position in what was a grind to the top-10, and eventual top five. He was 17th at the conclusion of stage one, and began the second stage in 13th.
He worked his way inside the top-10 by lap 165 – 20 laps shy of the stage two conclusion – and finished P10 to earn a stage point. After starting 11th in the final stage, Buescher pitted again at lap 209 in what would be the final stop of the afternoon. He stretched his fuel the remaining 103 laps to advance to second, earning his second-straight top five at Phoenix.
“I was really impressed with our Ford Mustang today, that was awesome,” Buescher said. “A heck of a comeback after a rough go the last couple of weeks. We had really fast race cars and I am proud to be able to do that today. I didn’t quite see the 20 there at the end so I know they were lights out. We have some work to do to get to that point.
“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. It tells me we can go compete for that thing. I am proud of everybody and a great bounce back after a rough go last week and did it with the same team here today and it just goes to show that we are going to do these things together, win, lose or draw. That was almost a win today.”
Up Next
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway next weekend for the fifth race of the season. Race coverage next Sunday is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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