Late in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, after the playoffs had already begun and Chris Buescher was already eliminated, he gave fans a glimpse of what they all knew RFK Racing had the potential to become after adding 2012 Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski as not only a driver but a co-owner the previous offseason.
Buescher won the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway, ending a win drought of more than six years that dated back to his upset victory in a rain-shortened race at Pocono Raceway in August 2016, during his rookie season with Front Row Motorsports. He entered that race having never finished higher than 14th in 26 previous starts.
Indeed, it was evident in 2023 that RFK Racing had turned a corner. Buescher and Keselowski were among the most consistent drivers in the garage throughout the regular season, and although neither one had found victory lane, there was very little doubt that they would both be playoff drivers after missing out in 2022. RFK Racing was arguably the series' top Ford team that summer.
Then the team truly broke through.
Buescher scored another short track win at Richmond Raceway, and the following week at Michigan International Speedway, he led the most laps and found his way back to victory lane.
Two weeks later in the series' next oval race at Daytona International Speedway to conclude the regular season, Buescher denied several playoff hopefuls with his third consecutive oval victory.
After having posted just two career wins in eight seasons before the Richmond race, it appeared that the floodgates had finally opened up for the driver of the No. 17 Ford.
Yet he hasn't won on an oval since, nor has he been back to the postseason.
Buescher did win the 2024 race at Watkins Glen International, after he took the lead from road course ace Shane van Gisbergen on the final lap to secure his first career road course victory. But he is 0-for-72 on tracks with exclusively left turns since his three-race stretch of wins at Richmond, Michigan, and Daytona.
RFK Racing haven't won a points race on an oval since Keselowski secured what is still his one and only victory behind the wheel of the No. 6 Ford at Darlington Raceway in May 2024. That was a race Buescher arguably should have won, prior to late contact with Tyler Reddick.
Buescher's oval win drought has not come without its close calls, and not just that one. The most notable one came in the Cup Series' closest ever 1-2 finish at Kansas Speedway in May 2024, when Buescher was originally ruled the winner before NASCAR correctly overturned the result in Kyle Larson's favor.
The 33-year-old Prosper, Texas native has scored 11 top five finishes, including three-runner-up finishes, as well as 19 other top 10 results during that 72-race stretch.
It's been argued that Buescher is the best low-upside driver in the grid, and his oval win drought, coupled with his consistency, might well back that up; he was the top finishing non-playoff driver in the standings in both 2024 and 2025.
Unsurprisingly, under the new non-win-and-in playoff format, he would have made it to the playoffs in both 2024 and 2025, and quite comfortably. His average finish was the seventh best in the series in 2024, and it was the sixth best in 2025.
But amid his oval win drought, there have even been calls for RFK Racing to seek new options for the No. 17 Ford, given what we know about the team's raw pace. Yet for a so-called low-upside driver, Buescher has quite literally shown the exactly upside he's been perceived to lack with an oval three-peat in 2023.
The real question is whether he can get back to that level, because after what he pulled off to conclude the 2023 regular season, I'm not sure anybody saw him going multiple years without another oval win.
He's set to have another chance this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, where he owns three of his top five oval finishes since his Daytona win. He placed fifth in November 2023 to seal a career-best seventh in the standings, second in March 2024, and fifth in March 2025.