16-05-2025
Chris Buescher, RFK Racing react to L1 penalty: 'It's already behind me right now'
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — One day after NASCAR officials levied an L1-grade penalty against them, RFK Racing's No. 17 team was back to business Friday, the first day of tuning for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The punishment for unapproved reinforcement of its front bumper cover during last weekend's event resulted in a 60-point deduction for driver Chris Buescher and the team in the Cup Series standings, a $75,000 fine and a two-race suspension for crew chief Scott Graves. RFK Racing indicated Friday that Graves would begin serving his suspension this weekend with veteran Doug Randolph filling in, but that its final determination on what happened and whether to appeal was ongoing.
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'There's been a lot going on,' said Brad Keselowski, in his fourth year as an owner-driver. 'I mean, honestly, I was traveling most of the week with media appearances, sponsor stuff, and I haven't got all of it dialed in yet to fully understand. We have till Monday to do so, and we're going to exhaust that time period and evaluate everything by then.'
RELATED: All-Star Weekend schedule | Cup Series standings
The penalty knocked Buescher from 14th place in the provisional Cup Series Playoffs standings to a below-the-bubble 24th — 27 points on the minus side. No points will be on the line during this weekend's All-Star exhibition at North Wilkesboro, meaning the team will have to wait until the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25 to attempt to regroup.
In the meantime, Buescher has his sights on the task at hand — his fifth All-Star Race appearance.
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'Yeah, it's already behind me right now,' said Buescher, who notched his career-best All-Star finish in third here last year. 'You know, we're here at the race track, we've been prepping for this race for a really long time already. Nothing's changing on our weekend. For us, we'll deal with that during the work week, but it's race weekend now. So yeah, with the speed we've had this year and what we've been able to do at a lot of different styles of race tracks, it's the same opportunity we felt like we had before Thursday. So yeah, I'm ready to go for this one.'
Keselowski, for one, said he had faith in Buescher's ability to bounce back.
'Oh, they've got a lot of great races in front of them, for them,' Keselowski said. 'Chris is a phenomenal road-course racer, a great racer in general, but a lot of potential there.'
Buescher has six top-10 finishes through the first 12 races of 2025, including an eighth place at Kansas, where he qualified a season-best second. The Texas native has led just two laps this year, but as Keselowski mentioned, road courses hold a certain level of promise; the most recent of Buescher's six Cup Series victories came in convincing fashion at Watkins Glen last September.
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He's no slouch on short tracks, either, with Bristol and Richmond among the venues where he's been victorious. Adding North Wilkesboro to that list this weekend won't help his points predicament, but the opportunity for some hard-nosed competition and bragging rights is the more pressing goal.
'You've got to rough people up for a million dollars, I guarantee it, and that's the way it should be,' Buescher said. 'It's supposed to be good, hard racing here. We've had some great racing through the years here, well before we came back, and we're trying to be a part of more coming back to this historic raceway here.'
