Story By: BRANDON LEE / RFK RACING – MADISON, IL – RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski scored his third-consecutive finish of third or better, powering the Solomon Plumbing Ford to a third-place finish in Sunday’s 300-mile NASCAR Cup Series race at Word Wide Technology Raceway. Chris Buescher rebounded for a 14th-place finish.
“That was solid strategy,” said Keselowski after the P3 run. “We got behind early for sure but we kept putting ourselves in position to keep moving forward. It was a really hard-fought day for everyone on the Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang. We will take a lot of good momentum from this one for sure.
“We were in position early and we had the issue there on pit road,” Keselowski added. “The guys kept their heads down and recovered. We had some good strategy and made some good passes on that last restart to start stage three and on the long run we were really strong, so just making it all count where we can.”
6 Recap
Keselowski started his weekend off on a positive note, qualifying seventh in Saturday’s single-car session. Early in the going Sunday, he was forced to overcome an issue on pit road, thus incorporating a combination of pit road strategy and speed to maneuver his way through the field.
Keselowski finished 26th to end the brief stage one, then had a caution go his way at lap 111 when he ran long on track, still needing a pit stop. He would restart sixth and finish the stage in fifth, setting up an eventful final stage of 100 laps.
He restarted 15th for the final run and was back into the top-10 within a handful of laps. As teams began a green-flag pit cycle, Keselowski asked to remain on track and did just that, ultimately inheriting the lead for 17 laps at lap 194. Once his stop was complete, Keselowski ultimately drove back into the top five for the P3 result.
The No. 6 team now has eight top-10s in 15 races, seven inside the top five, coming off the three-straight top three results.
17 Recap
Buescher’s day began from the 26th spot as he battled tough track position for a majority of the afternoon. He patiently moved his TravelCenters Ford inside the top-10 by lap 100, but an untimely caution just moments after pitting under green forced the No. 17 team to restart at the rear of the field.
Buescher moved from 32nd to 23rd by the conclusion of stage two. He hit pit road for the final time on lap 198, returning to the field in 15th position, before finishing a spot better in 14th.
Up Next
The NASCAR Cup Series heads West to Sonoma Raceway next weekend. Race coverage Sunday is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).