Phoenix finish sums up RFK Racing’s 2025 NASCAR Cup season in review

Brad Keselowski’s final set of corners in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season summed his team’s season as a whole.

Good enough to run up front but missing something to close out a win.

Keselowski finished second after staying out on older tires and entering turn three as the leader in overtime of the season finale race at Phoenix Raceway, ahead of Ryan Blaney and others.

Keselowski ultimately couldn’t get his worn tires to grip, allowing Blaney to sneak by him and steal the win by 0.097 seconds — leaving the 2012 Cup champion winless for just the fourth time in 16 seasons.

More broadly, Keselowski’s RFK Racing went winless for the first time since he formed RFK in 2022.

RFK Racing before 2025

Chris Buescher earned RFK its first win at Bristol in September of 2022 and carried the banner into three wins and the Round of 8 in 2023.

2024 saw Keselowski take his turn with a Darlington win and a playoff berth – while Buescher finally won as a playoff spoiler at Watkins Glen in September.

An expansion to three cars in 2025, with the signing of Ryan Preece to the new No. 60 team, raised questions about their performance.

How did RFK Racing fare with three cars?

While Keselowski failed to lead a lap or earn a top-10 in the first 12 races, he rallied with Buescher and Preece to try and make the playoffs in the 14 subsequent races. All of them reached the bubble as Keselowski came close to winning at Pocono, Atlanta and Iowa while Preece was strong at Richmond and Buescher was strong at Michigan, Pocono, Atlanta and Watkins Glen.

Somehow, none of them won — and all of them missed the playoffs.

The team continued to turn up the performance. Buescher kept up his stealthily serious consistency while Preece showed at Martinsville he could contend with Championship 4 hopefuls — and Keselowski led the charge with standout finishes at Bristol and Phoenix.

Yet, when the season was over, none of them broke through to win.

Chris Buescher’s 2025 NASCAR Cup season in review with RFK Racing

“I can sum our year up as it was a good year but it wasn’t a great year,” Buescher said.

Buescher had the sixth-best average finish of anyone in the field (14.3), besting Championship 4 driver William Byron who had the same amount of top-10 finishes as Buescher (16) in 2025.

Fun fact: Chris Buescher earned the same exact average finish in 2025 as 2024 (14.3).

Ryan Preece’s 2025 NASCAR Cup season in review with RFK Racing

Preece wasn’t far beyond Buescher. He had 10th-most top-10 finishes and the 11th-best average finish of anyone in the Cup field. He ended the season with finishes of sixth, ninth, 15th, sixth and ninth that boosted him to 14 top-10s and an average finish of 15.7 — by far some career-high marks for a single season:

• Top-Five Finishes: 3 in 2025 (Previous high: 1 in 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024)
• Top-10s: 14 in 2025 (Previous high: 5 in 2024)
• Average Finish: 15.7 in 2025 (Previous high: 20.8 in 2023)

Preece took off, figuratively — and literally — speaking, in 2025.

“Coming into the 2025 season, I said, ‘OK, I’m gonna focus on the things I need to focus on as a race car driver and trust that the people around me… and I’ll be able to go show what I’m capable of.’ So, a change in mindset was probably a big piece of that as well as coming over to RFK and seeing what Brad’s been able to help build and continue to build back up of what we can be,” Preece said.

“We’re all frustrated we didn’t make the playoffs, but there’s a ton of potential between all three of us and I’m excited for that.”

Buescher and Preece were ultimately “best of the rest,” finishing 17th and 18th in points.

Brad Keselowski’s 2025 NASCAR Cup season in review with RFK Racing

Meanwhile, Keselowski rallied back from a slow start to finish 20th in points. It’s a season of what could’ve been as Keselowski earned all 13 top-10s, including six top-five finishes, and 222 laps led in the final 24 races. Similar to Preece, he earned five top-10s in the final eight races and closed the season strong.

“I think a third team has helped us in a lot of ways. In hardly any area, I would say, has it hurt us at all, so it’s been terrific. Three cars, among other things, give us more data and more things to learn,” Keselowski said.

Keselowski is in the middle of a 59-race winless streak with his last win coming at Darlington in May. Buescher is in a 44-race winless streak with his last win coming at Watkins Glen in September.

Preece, who has made 223 Cup starts, is still looking for his first Cup win. His best finish is third at Las Vegas in the spring and Talladega in April of 2019.

Fun fact: Chris Buescher earned the same exact average finish in 2025 as 2024 (14.3).