RFK Racing president Chip Bowers believes the team has a genuine opportunity to fight for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship after Ryan Preece won the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. Preece overcame a 31-point deficit with a dramatic overtime victory to secure the final Chase spot, joining teammate Chris Buescher in the 16-driver postseason field.
Preece’s path to the Chase was far from straightforward. The No. 60 Ford was involved in a three-car incident at the end of Stage 1, leaving him to recover from 38th at the start of Stage 2. He fought back to finish second in the stage and survived the late-race chaos to claim his first points-paying Cup Series victory.
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RFK Racing has two drivers in the Chase. Buescher enters the postseason as the No. 10 seed with 2,030 points, while Preece starts 16th with 2,000 points. Denny Hamlin leads with 2100 points, but Bowers believes both RFK drivers have a chance to move forward quickly if they can continue the momentum from Daytona.
Asked on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio whether RFK Racing had any tricks saved for the 10-race Chase, Bowers said (1:21 onwards):
“Everything is on the table… We’ve done a lot of good things this year. We don’t necessarily want to change our behavior in terms of what got us here. But I do believe ending the season, the regular season with a big win at Daytona for Ryan, there’s so much momentum right now in the organization. It’s going to be all hands-on deck to make sure that we have the best people possible on these two cars to give us the best chance possible to advance and compete for a cup championship.”
“Our partners are behind us. Our sponsors, everybody’s just fired up to get going. And we believe we have as much of a chance as Denny Hamlin or anybody else on the circuit. So we’re excited to get started.”
The 100-point gap does not necessarily leave Ryan Preece out of contention. Under the new Chase format, a win is worth 55 points, while a second-place finish earns 35 points. Stage points and the fastest-lap bonus can bring the driver’s total up to 76. If drivers ahead of Preece have poor results while he sweeps the day, he can jump as far as second in the standings after just one race.
That is the reason Chip Bowers sees the 16th seed as a starting point rather than a major disadvantage. Ryan Preece has already shown at Daytona that he can overcome a sizeable points deficit when the situation demands it, while Buescher enters the Chase in a much stronger position.
RFK therefore has two different paths into the championship fight, but both cars begin with the same goal of maximizing points every weekend. Bowers also pointed to the mentality that helped Preece reach the Chase after starting the final race 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen.
“Nothing in life is easy. We wouldn’t want it any other way. We’re going to earn our way to a Cup championship. We believe that we’ve built an organization prepared for moments like this. We’re going to have a fighter’s mentality throughout. Ryan has always said, just get me in and let us do our jobs and do it the best way we know how and let the chips fall where they may. I know Chris is hungry as well. He has had a great year… He’s primed for a really good Chase run as is Ryan.”
The Chase opens with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 6 at 5 p.m. ET over 367 laps. Chris Buescher has one of the best average finishes at Darlington in the Next Gen era, with 10.6, and has finished inside the top 10 in each of his last four starts there. Ryan Preece, meanwhile, has an average finish of 18.1 and has no top-10 finishes at the track in 13 Cup starts.
Brad Keselowski backs RFK Racing’s mentality into Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher’s Chase run
RFK Racing will have two cars in the 2026 Chase, but team co-owner Brad Keselowski will not be among the 16 drivers competing for the championship. He failed to qualify for the postseason, leaving Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher to carry RFK’s title hopes into the 10-race Chase.
Following Preece’s Daytona victory, Keselowski explained that RFK’s internal focus has remained on improving the cars, strategy, and pit-road execution.
“It’s certainly validating, for sure, when there’s success. We have our different competition meetings, I think I upset some people sometimes. I’ll say, I don’t want to hear anything about the drivers. I know these are the right drivers. They have a history, track record of success. If we’re not winning, I don’t want to hear about the drivers. I want to hear about the cars, what we’re doing to make them faster, the strategy, the pit crew stuff. That’s what I want to hear about.”
For an organization that has spent the season focusing on improving its cars and execution, the next 10 races will show whether that philosophy can turn RFK Racing’s late-season momentum into a genuine championship challenge.
Edited by Anurup Chakraborty