{"id":183981,"date":"2025-08-29T05:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T05:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/183981\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T05:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T05:33:11","slug":"rfks-consistency-doesnt-pay-off-in-playoff-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/183981\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK’s Consistency Doesn’t Pay Off in Playoff System"},"content":{"rendered":"

If in 2003 you told Roush Racing brass that consistency would one day be its downfall, they would\u2019ve thought you were crazy.<\/p>\n

On the heels of Matt Kenseth<\/a>\u2018s slow-and-steady NASCAR Cup Series championship run in 2003, consistency wasn\u2019t seen as a bad thing, and it\u2019s still very valuable today. But it\u2019s not king.<\/p>\n

In 2025, when winning means everything in the NASCAR playoff system, a consistent 2025 campaign between RFK Racing drivers Brad Keselowski<\/a>, Ryan Preece<\/a> and Chris Buescher<\/a> yielded a grand total of zero playoff berths.<\/p>\n

Buescher, who also narrowly missed the postseason in 2024, collected 13 top-10 finishes and never fell below 17th in the standings all season. Keselowski\u2019s season got off to an awful start \u2014 the 2012 champ was 33rd in points after the Coca-Cola 600 \u2014 but he rallied over the second half of the regular season, climbing to 19th and finishing top 10 in seven of the final 13 races. Preece scored 10 top-10 finishes and was around the cut line constantly over the second half of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the RFK trio, Bubba Wallace<\/a>, Austin Cindric<\/a>, Josh Berry<\/a>, Shane van Gisbergen<\/a> and Austin Dillon<\/a> all won races, negating what was a pair of solid seasons of Buescher and Preece and an admirable second-half comeback from Keselowski.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Does Missing the Playoffs Make a Season a Failure?<\/p>\n

Not that points ended up mattering for the likes of Preece and Buescher at Daytona International Speedway, but both drivers suffered penalties outside of their control early in the regular season that put them behind the 8-ball with regards to points. <\/p>\n

Preece was disqualified following a runner-up finish to Cindric at Talladega Superspeedway, which stripped Preece of 40 points. Buescher\u2019s No. 17 team incurred a 60-point penalty following the May 11 race at Kansas Speedway that was later reduced to 30. <\/p>\n

While neither Preece nor Buescher would\u2019ve scored enough points to beat Alex Bowman<\/a> for the final playoff spot anyway, they would\u2019ve at least been in the conversation to point their way into the postseason at Daytona without the penalties.<\/p>\n

Buescher\u2019s aforementioned 2024 season was similar: a year in which the No. 17 team was incredibly consistent, hovered around the cut line all season but ultimately fell short of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that Buescher did go on to win at Watkins Glen International last season, and victory could easily be a possibility for all three RFK drivers over the final 10 races. But a championship won\u2019t be in the cards regardless of how well the trio runs over the next 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

That has to hurt for an organization that has been on the up-and-up since Keselowski became a co-owner of RFK in 2022. Both Buescher and Keselowski made the playoffs in 2023, with the former doing so on the back of three wins. Keselowski won his way into the postseason in 2024, and with the addition of Preece for 2025, there were high expectations going into 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Truckin\u2019 Thursdays: Meet the 2025 Playoff Field<\/p>\n

If you remove the playoff standings and focus on the results and speed that RFK has shown as an organization this season, you could say that those expectations have been met.<\/p>\n

But even in a year when RFK has successfully added a third team and seen all three of its cars consistently run inside the top 10, there\u2019s bound to be an air of disappointment that none of its drivers will compete for a championship.<\/p>\n

Consistency is an inherently good thing in racing, but in NASCAR, it can\u2019t be a team\u2019s end-all, be-all. If RFK wants to chase championships in the future, it\u2019s going to have to figure out how to consistently win again above all else.<\/p>\n

Kenseth and Lee Petty<\/a> may not like it, but consistency is no longer the most valuable aspect of a NASCAR race team. Opportunism is, and in 2025, RFK simply wasn\u2019t opportunistic when it needed to be.<\/p>\n

\"Donate<\/a>
\n\"20240706<\/a><\/p>\n

A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If in 2003 you told Roush Racing brass that consistency would one day be its downfall, they would\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":183982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-183981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115110425704627649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}