Denny Hamlin may have grabbed all the attention with his victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but something really worth noting is the performance of all three drivers from RFK Racing.

At the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, team RFK seemed to struggle during the practice stage, but something seemed to change as Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher made it to the top 10 in qualifying.

Eventually, Buescher went on to secure sixth place, which was his best finish of the season. Meanwhile, fellow drivers Preece and Brad Keselowski finished 10th and 11th, respectively, thus ensuring a top 11 finish for all three RFK drivers.

On being asked about what made the difference for the team before and after the practice session, Buescher simply attributed it to a lot of hard work and good pit stops.

He spoke, “The team went to work. Everybody in the 17 group put in the work, and we had a solid qualifying effort. A good pit stall, kinda direction into the head, and we were able to take this Smith’s Farm Ridge Ford Mustang and just steadily work for it all day long.

Strong pit stops, good restarts, the car handled well. Needed a little bit more turn to hunt the top five, but a solid 1.5 mile on the year, a first true 1.5 mile that gives us a good lead going forward for the next handful,” he added.

In the points table, Buescher currently ranks ninth, with 146 points in his tally, while Keselowski and Preece are quite closely placed, occupying the twelfth and thirteenth spots, with 127 and 125 points in their tally, respectively.

Easy To Get In Trouble With Increased Horsepower

In October 2025, it was announced that the horsepower for some road courses and ovals less than 1.5 miles in length would be set at 750hp, as opposed to the regular 670hp.

This caused quite some chatter among NASCAR fans, but most drivers, including Joey Logano and Christopher Bell, seemed positive about it.

Brad Keselowski said he is looking forward to the race in Darlington, but he also mentioned that the increased power could increase the chances for things to go wrong.

He said, “I think it’s going to be a very difficult race. Darlington is always tough, but you know, big loss in grip, increase in corner entry speeds, it’s going to be really easy to get in trouble.”

Mike Forde, Vice President, Racing Communications, NASCAR, mentioned on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, that the increase in horsepower allowed higher speeds on certain sections of the track, resulting in a lot of passing at the Phoenix Raceway, where Ryan Blaney broke Tyler Reddick’s winning streak.

Reportedly, a lot of teams also suffered from tyre issues. However, NASCAR officials were quick to pinpoint that debris on the track was the reason, and not the tyre itself.

Regardless, the upcoming weekend at Darlington will begin a three-race streak with the updated horsepower package. The package may eventually find its way across all tracks, and it will be interesting to see how the drivers perform.

Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi