RFK earned a pair of top five finishes Sunday at Phoenix Raceway as Chris Buescher finished second in the BuildSubmarines.com Ford, and Brad Keselowski fourth in the debut for the Consumer Cellular Ford.
The closing laps came down to a fuel mileage race, as the last 100 laps ran all under green. A strategy call worked in the favor of Buescher and the No. 17 team – who consistently ran top-10 by the end of stage two – while Keselowski maintained solid position for the majority of the race.
The pair of top five finishes marks the first time both RFK Fords have finished top five together since the Daytona summer race last year, where Buescher picked up the win and Keselowski finished P2. It also marks the first top five for each driver in 2024.
6 Recap
Keselowski began the afternoon from the 18th position and slowly but surely chiseled his way forward. He finished 14th in an otherwise uneventful opening stage, but the No. 6 pit crew put him inside the top-10 in the stage break as he restarted eighth.
The second stage ran caution-free as Keselowski maintained the ninth position throughout, and picked up a pair of stage points with a P9 finish to end the segment. He fired off seventh for the third and final stage after another strong stop, as three yellows were displayed in the next 20 laps.
Keselowski pitted for right side tires under yellow at lap 214 to restart fourth, and from there maintained the top five position. As a fuel sequence played out in the closing laps, Keselowski powered his way to fourth for his first top five of the season.
“It was a good solid day for us,” Keselowski said. “We want to win these races but we didn’t have anywhere near the speed the 20 car did, I don’t know if anybody did to be quite honest. We put ourselves in good position with a good pit call and a great restart at the end and we just tried to execute. The potential is there. We are just one step away and we are going to keep working on it until we get there.”
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