Getty Chris Buescher waves to fans at Daytona International Speedway.
RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher won at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2022 and snapped a winless streaking dating back to his rookie season in 2016. Now, he enters the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season with several “winnable” races on his list.
Buescher provided the insight ahead of the trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube. He met with media members and explained how there are multiple styles of tracks where he could potentially celebrate a win. He isn’t solely focusing on short tracks or super speedways.
“I would say that Bristol was obviously kind of a hit for us and concrete racetracks, so Dover was strong for us,” Buescher said ahead of the trip to Las Vegas. “Road courses were extremely strong last year with the exception of COTA, and I think the only reason that was because it was our first one and we learned a lot during that race that put us on the correct path for all of the others.”
Buescher Contended for Wins in Multiple Weekends
GettyChris Buescher waves to fans at Darlington Raceway.
The driver of the No. 17 Ford Mustang did not enter the 2022 Cup Series season as a prominent name to watch. However, he delivered career-best performances during his first season working alongside Brad Keselowski.
Buescher delivered 10 top-10 finishes in 2022 along with three top-fives and one win. He won the pole at Dover, one of the tracks he has circled for 2023, and he finished second overall at Sonoma Raceway behind Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez.
The success at road courses also extended to Road America (sixth), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (10th), Watkins Glen International (ninth), and the Charlotte Roval (sixth). Buescher secured crucial points at these tracks and now his goal is to continue doing so in 2023.
“I’ve got road courses circled pretty high up on my list right now,” Buescher continued. “And then a track that I’ve been telling everybody to fill with water for years and years was Richmond, and then we went there and had a really solid run last year. So trying to get my attitude changed a little bit around that facility, but I feel like that’s another great opportunity for us as well.”
Buescher Will First Compare the No. 17 to Other Entries
Buescher has several races on the schedule circled, but he will not take them on until later in the season. For now, he will take on Las Vegas Motor Speedway while seeing how the No. 17 stacks up against the competition.
As Buescher explained during the media session, the trip to Fontana provided some information for the rest of the season. However, it was less important overall than Las Vegas Motor Speedway considering that it has little similarity to other intermediate tracks on the schedule.
“Fontana is hard just based on the asphalt condition, the lanes, the seams,” Buescher said. “It’s a fantastic racetrack and I’m definitely bummed that that was the last one there, but I don’t know if it’s a true read for any other places other than maybe Homestead as we head later into the year.
“But Vegas will be very important to look at because it does have a lot of similarities to a lot of the other mile-and-a-halves that we’ll be going to. This will be a good test this weekend to see where we stack up, what we need to work on and what we’ve done right through the offseason.”