“Nothing is going to change after that”: Chris Buescher shares resilient reaction to hefty penalties by NASCAR

Chris Buescher expressed his thoughts after NASCAR severely punished the No. 17 driver for the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing team. Buescher brought an optimistic approach to the hefty penalty and claimed to be focused on the speed the Ford roster has brought to the team this season.

After the AdventHealth 400 race at Kansas Speedway, Buescher and RFK were handed a $75,000 fine for the L1 penalty, meaning an illegal modification to the car's front bumper. Moreover, Buescher and RFK were docked with 60 championship and five playoff points.

Apart from that, the team's crew chief is also suspended for the upcoming two races, the All-Star race in North Wilkesboro Speedway and the Coca-Cola 600 race in Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Nevertheless, Chris Buescher is unfazed by this major setback to the Brad Keselowski-owned organization and claims to look past these hiccups.

In a recent conversation with reporter Toby Christie, Buescher said:

"You know, we've had some really great speed here at RFK, and we're certainly proud of that. What we've been able to do at race tracks, and you know, nothing is going to change that right now. We've had a lot of potential in these race cars, and ultimately, yeah, I mean, we'll take this one step at a time right now."

"We've been really good on mile-and-a-halfs the last several weeks. It's a big one circle as well, one of my favorite races. So just trying to really look ahead," added Chris Buescher.

This was the second blow to RFK Racing after the No. 60 driver, Ryan Preece, was disqualified for failing post-race inspection. Thus, he lost his runner-up spot in the superspeedway race at Talladega.

As things stand, Preece unwantingly gained spots in the points standings after Buescher's misfortunes in the Kansas inspection.

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How did Ryan Preece gain from Chris Buescher's Kansas misfortune?

Soon after the points were docked from the No. 17 Chris Buescher's name, his RFK Racing teammate, Ryan Preece, benefited from it despite having a recent DNF to his name.

In a post on X, NASCAR reporter Colin Ward mentioned that Buescher was dropped below the playoff bubble, whereas Preece gained spots and now sits above the cutline. He wrote:

"This penalty drops Buescher to 24th in the playoff standings, -27 below the cut line. It allows his RFK teammate Ryan Preece to be in the current playoff picture, +7 above the cut line in the 16th seed."

So far, Chris Buescher has had just one top-five finish at Phoenix Raceway. Apart from that, the RFK driver has finished inside the top 10 five times.

NASCAR is now underway for the All-Star weekend at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway for a non-points-paying race. From then on, the teams will head to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600 race on May 25th.