Buescher, who had a breakthrough season last 12 months with three wins, hoped to have a win within the bag this season, but despite coming so close, he stays winless with 4 races remaining within the regular season.
Heading into Sunday's race in Richmond, Va., Buescher still has a probability to make the playoffs by way of points, but his situation is uncertain.
He ranks fifteenth within the 16-driver playoff field, 10 points ahead of Ross Chastain, while Bubba Wallace is the primary driver outside the cutoff zone, 17 points behind Buescher.
A win in the following 4 races will secure Buescher a spot within the playoffs, and he would like to affix his RFK Racing team and co-owner Brad Keselowski within the title fight along the way in which.
Chris Buescher, RFK Racing, BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang
Photo: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsports images
“I’m not upset about it,” Buescher said Wednesday. “I’m adamant about it — I don’t want to change the way we approach racing. I’ve just seen it too many times in our sport, when you try to go back and change what you’re doing, it can cost you.”
“We have to race our races, show our best and that should be enough to get us where we need to be. “We must bear in mind (of the points) nevertheless it's not something that annoys us or worries us.”
Perfect opportunity to return to VL
The schedule gives Buescher and his No. 17 Ford team a rare opportunity.
Of the 4 tracks that follow – Richmond, Michigan, Daytona and Darlington – Buescher won at three of them last season, good for a career-best seventh place within the series standings.
“It’s a pretty good statistic when you look at it, but last year’s results are not up to par with this year’s results,” he said. “We were excellent at quite a lot of different varieties of racetracks. We were very near closing it out.
“We're capable of making progress and winning a race here in the next four, like we've been doing. We just have to clean up and get a few things going for us, just do a good job and control what we can on our end.”
A 12 months ago at Richmond, Buescher launched his remarkable streak of three wins in five weeks, giving him a lift heading into the 2023 playoffs.
A repeat of last 12 months’s victory can be difficult in itself, however the circumstances of this 12 months’s race at Richmond have also modified.
To improve the standard of racing, NASCAR allows Goodyear to supply teams with the flexibility to make use of softer “option” tires (softer but with more grip) throughout the 400-lap race.
As was the case at this 12 months’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway, teams can have three sets of “optional” tires available – one set for practice and two for the race.
“We have a lot to learn on Saturday,” Buescher said of the prolonged rehearsal that teams have been offered this weekend. “North Wilkesboro was the last time we tried it. North Wilkesboro had recent asphalt and it lasted into the evening.
“It's an evening race, so there might be some variance on the (tyre) option. I promise we'll be taking a lot of notes to find out what we think will happen in the race.”
Regardless, Buescher — who has two second-place finishes this 12 months, including a loss to Kyle Larson in Kansas — believes his team can pick up a number of wins before the top of the regular season.
“We were very good at a lot of those spots. We just weren’t able to close the deal and it became frustrating,” he said. “It’s hard to maintain everyone up since it’s a troublesome sport and we all know that.
“I think we're going to have to do what we did last year and come alive and make a spectacle of it.”
