MEXICO CITY — There was no celebrating last week at RFK Racing after it placed three cars in the top 10 for the first time in a Cup race since July 2016 at Daytona.
“It was certainly not anything to be embarrassed by,” Brad Keselowski said of the team’s performance at Michigan. “ … We just want to do it more often. We want to win.
“We’re, as a company, just fighting really hard to break through to the next level and we have these intermittent flashes and sparks. We want to turn it into a roaring fire.”
That begins with Sunday’s Cup race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, a 15-turn, 2.42-mile road course.
Ryan Preece will start second — his first top-five starting spot on a road course. Chris Buescher, who has the best road course average finish in the Next Gen car at 8.7, starts 16th. Keselowski will start 30th.
RFK Racing has placed at least two cars in the top 10 in three of the last four races, matching what Hendrick Motorsports has done, although Hendrick has a win and three more top-five finishes than RFK in that span.
Ten races will remain in the regular season after Sunday’s race. Buescher is in a playoff spot, 20 points above the cutline, and Preece holds the final playoff spot entering Sunday’s event. Keselowski needs a win to make the playoffs.
“This is a big stretch for us,” Keselowski said. “We want to get all three of our cars in the playoffs. It appears that it’s going to take wins for all three cars to do that, maybe we’ll get one car in on points. We’ve had a couple of really strong races but haven’t broke through to Victory Lane and I’m disappointed by that.
“I feel that we’re bringing efforts that are close to being able to do that, but we haven’t gotten there. You can’t do anything about the races behind us, but the races in front of us you’re just trying to be laser-focused to achieve results.”
With four road course races among the final 11 events of the regular season, Keselowski sees opportunity for his teams.
“All three of our cars at COTA were a factor at one point,” he said. “Didn’t necessarily get the win but showed some strength.”
Preece has been strong lately, scoring three top 10s in the last four races.
“Confidence is a lot higher,” Preece said. “I’ve been really trying to focus on this racetrack because I feel like from a team aspect there was a lot of unknowns for everybody. … The playing field is pretty level. I just put a lot of effort into it.”
