Even though Brad Keselowski says he doesn’t have anything signed for the 2027 season, Chris Buescher says he knows his RFK Racing teammate has a plan.
“He doesn’t do anything without a plan,” Buescher said.
When Brad Keselowski joined Roush Fenway Racing as a minority owner and driver in late 2021, the first thing he wanted was to make sure they had Buescher under contract. Buescher has won five races since Keselowski joined the organization.
“Brad has been a great mentor and has meant a ton to our resurgence and getting back to the point where we’re in the playoffs and in the hunt to win races and won a handful of races over the last several years. He will certainly be missed in a lot of ways,” Buescher said.
In addition to Buescher’s victories, Keselowski posted a win at Darlington in 2024, and Ryan Preece won this year’s Clash at Bowman Gray and acquired his first points victory at Daytona in August.
“We’ve kind of established a great foundation and we owe so much of that to Brad and that will help set us going forward on a strong path,” Buescher said.
Preece joined RFK Racing in 2025 after Stewart Haas Racing shutdown at the end of the 2024 season. A resilient New Englander who still works on and races his own Modified, Preece says this is an opportunity to keep building the organization.
“I see a lot of glass half empty things, and I’m a glass half full guy,” Preece said. “I think we have a really strong foundation at RFK and right now I’m a racer and it’s taken me too damn long to win races, and I feel like we want to keep going that way.”
Keselowski, Buescher, and Preece worked together to return the team founded by Jack Roush to a race winner and championship contender. When Buescher won at Bristol in September 2022, it was the first time the organization had enjoyed victory lane since July 2017 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won at Daytona. It was the organization’s first non-superspeedway victory since Carl Edwards won at Bristol in March 2014.
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Chris Buescher.
Together, the three men created comical commercials, and the Buescher/Preece pranks became legendary. But at their core they were racers who had built race cars and could still work on them. Nothing had come easy in their careers, and with Keselowski at the helm, they had someone who could communicate well regarding what their cars needed.
“It was always the most apparent when you got to Mondays and you sat down in a room and we discussed how our races went and what we need to be better,” Buescher said. “Ryan and I have talked about this a lot. You sit there and you try and explain it the best you can as a driver, but when Brad is a driver as well and can explain it to everybody on the competition side, not just in that meeting, and continue to push it to be better, it has a big impact and moves the needle quicker than I’ve seen it in the past. It’s something we’ll have to continue to figure out how to strive to make that impact and move that needle as efficiently.”
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Preece said he always knew Keselowski was in his corner and that was nice. However, he also realizes this is an opportunity for Buescher, the team’s new driver and himself to continue “building the house.”
“Brad has worn a lot of different hats in front of me, whether it’s the friend side of it, the owner’s side of it, the teammate’s side of it,” Buescher said. “His knowledge and expertise through the years has been instrumental in helping me continue to improve. That’s been my case everywhere I’ve been and all the teammates I’ve had through the years that have been able to gather so much from them and Brad has been just on a step above that. It’s led to a lot of success for myself and I’m certainly not losing sight of any of that.”
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.