Chris Buescher made his 400th career start in the NASCAR Cup Series after taking the green flag in Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway, the penultimate contest of the 2026 season and The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
The driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford started the race in 18th and entered Sunday’s event 16th in points.
RELATED: Live leaderboard | Buescher through the years
“It’s kind of went by surprisingly quick. Fortunately, it’s been a lot of fun along the way,” Buescher said Wednesday in a Zoom teleconference. “We’ve been able to improve our outlook on the end of the year on most seasons. With that, it’s a slower progression than maybe would have hoped at times, but certainly been a blast along the way. Pretty wild to sit here and think — it was probably just over 20 years ago sitting in the grandstands at Texas Motor Speedway, watching these races, ‘man, that’d be cool to do one day.’ And now we’re here saying we’ve done 399 of them, so not a bad number.”
Buescher has competed for RFK since the 2020 season, winning five times with the organization. He had a breakout campaign in 2023 with three victories and set career highs in top fives (nine) and top 10s (17). Buescher made a charge all the way to the Round of 8 in the former playoff postseason format before being eliminated from championship contention at Martinsville that year.
He competed in his first full-time Cup campaign with Front Row Motorsports in 2016 and scored his maiden victory in a fog-shortened race at Pocono Raceway. Buescher then moved over to JTG Daugherty Racing (now Hyak Motorsports) and competed full-time with the team from 2017-2019.
In 2015, Buescher won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship with RFK, winning two races and recording 20 top-10 finishes en route to the trophy.
While Buescher said he hasn’t had one particular moment that made him say “I’ve made it,” he’s appreciative of the competitive opportunity RFK has given him in his national-series career.
“I feel like we’ve been on pins and needles through a lot of the years,” Buescher said. “Jack [Roush] and everybody at RFK here gave me a massive opportunity a long, long time ago and just want to continue to do well for them, and feel like we’re giving back to that opportunity that was afforded me. The last handful of years have certainly felt like I’ve been able to really put stakes in the ground and hold on around here. It’s been fun to get this thing on the upswing and in a good place, and in a place where we’ve been able to go win a small handful of races, but a handful nonetheless, and in the hunt to win a handful more.”