Buescher/RFK Wins

[texasprd]

Congratulations to Texan Chris Buescher for winning the NASCAR Richmond race this past Sunday!  I'm surprised it hadn't been mentioned already.  It's also the first win for RFK (in their current ownership structure), too - as a long time Ford fan, I'm happy to see the Roush "ownership chain" back in the winner's circle after such a long drought (since Roush now has partners, "ownership chain" was the best phrase I could come up with regarding his continuity as owner, now partner).

Reading the race coverage articles, I saw that Brad Keselowski had an interesting sponsor - buildsubmarinesdotcom.  I guess that's kind of like the Schneider trucking line's race car sponsorship some years back (is it still going?) where they said a principal reason for sponsoring was to attract drivers.

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by texasprd

[DriverX]

Buescher did win last September at Bristol under the RFK Banner, but yes, it's cool to see the momentum Brad Keselowski has brought back to a dying team. 

[ron.brown11]

I love Buescher as a driver, and I loved the quote from Jack Roush, after resigning him a couple of years ago. "We're correcting a mistake we made in letting him go before". Can you imagine the trepidation Kes must have had, leaving Penske to try and right the ship at Roush? But he had something that most don't know about. His dad Bob was a really good racer himself. I won't say that he never drove for somebody, but most of his career was driving the family car. He won races and I think a couple of ARCA championships, and did it with a lot less than a lot of his competitors. That's where Brad learned his work ethic.

He was able to translate that into a successful truck team, that had a few current top 3 division drivers come through his program. When NASCAR forced the truck teams to go to the Ilmore engine, and Ford pulled their financial support, he sold out. Having the business genius Roger Penske as a boss for a decade, sharpened his business chops I'm sure too. He then started his machining business, and does a good amount business for the government & large corporations. The Buildsubmarines.com isn't just happenstance. They are a big racing advertiser at Langley & other tracks along the east coast. I don't know if Ken has any contracts with them, but I sure wouldn't bet against that idea. Plus, there are a lot of great fabricators in the racing community, that's a pretty good place to look for fabricators to build submarines.

Wouldn't that shock the racing world, if both RFK cars get wins and hold their own in the playoffs? Did you hear the interview with Kyle Busch? He was shocked how good the RFK cars were. He was expecting the Gibbs & Hendrick cars to dominate, and said "where'd they come from"? Brad is proving to be a good leader at RFK, and that's good for racing's future. Jack is no youngster, and has tried to kill himself a couple of times in his planes. The second one cost him his eye & his pilot's license. He also didn't have any succession plans in place if/when he couldn't run Roush Fenway Racing. You can bet that the Fenway side wouldn't have kept the race team going. Now they have a plan to continue, if Roush can't continue.

I hate the fact that there really isn't any good independent teams anymore. So if we're stuck with having mega teams, we need as many as possible to be competitively and financially viable as possible. That too is good for racing.

[MikePeters95]

17 hours ago, ron.brown11 said:

 He also didn't have any succession plans in place if/when he couldn't run Roush Fenway Racing. You can bet that the Fenway side wouldn't have kept the race team going. Now they have a plan to continue, if Roush can't continue.

 

Jack Jr has been running things behind the scenes but is more interested in road racing and trying to drive.  His daughter is also into motorsports stuff and actually lives in Austin.  There is still some Roush bloodline that runs things behind the scenes and will be for a long time, but he has delegated a lot of things.

With that said, the delegation, RFK and Roush aren't really as intertwined as one would think.

[texasprd]

23 hours ago, DriverX said:

Buescher did win last September at Bristol under the RFK Banner, but yes, it's cool to see the momentum Brad Keselowski has brought back to a dying team. 

Thanks - I'd forgotten about that, and I had not noticed any mention of it on any of the broadcast TV coverage I watched so far this year. I remember the commentators (a/o the last Fox or NBC broadcast I saw, 3 or 4 weeks ago) were commenting about how RFK is improving and a win would come soon (my subject-to-error interpretation, anyway)...  Turns out it already had come last year, as you mentioned.

 

And you are so right, Ron - the more competitive teams, the better.

[ron.brown11]

Chris Buescher wins again!!! Nice job of holding off Martin Truex Jr in the closing laps. Brad K finished 4th. Everyone was saying the Martin was the car to beat, and he was really strong both days. I was a bit surprised, but not shocked that both RFK cars were fast, but wasn't expecting a win & a 4th place run. I know that it's killing Brad that he can't get a win at MIS, but this must be a pretty good consolation prize. Texas boy does good, AGAIN!!

[texasprd]

It's a Texan heat wave (😉) - or - when you're hot, you're hot! 

From what I read in the Richmond race recounts (since the race didn't appear to be on broadcast TV), RFK could very well have run 1-2 had Keselowski not muffed a pit stop - so the win and 4th is not too terribly surprising.

[HiTech]

On 8/8/2023 at 8:36 AM, texasprd said:

It's a Texan heat wave (😉) - or - when you're hot, you're hot! 

From what I read in the Richmond race recounts (since the race didn't appear to be on broadcast TV), RFK could very well have run 1-2 had Keselowski not muffed a pit stop - so the win and 4th is not too terribly surprising.

 TEXAS TORNADO ..