INDIANAPOLIS — Brad Keselowski said after Chris Buescher’s Richmond win that he felt like RFK Racing has moved from irrelevant to relevant. The next step was being contenders.

“I told somebody, a lot of you guys here this year, we moved from irrelevant to relevant. The next step is to try to be contenders,” he said then. “You get to the contender status by winning races.

“We’re not where we want to be. We want to be where we win every week, we’re 1-2 finishing. This is another step in our progression and a lot to be proud of.”

Now, after two straight wins though, how about now?

“We’re letting our results speak for themselves,” he said after Buescher’s win in Michigan on Monday. “Chris has done a heck of a job driving the car. When you get win, it feels really good.

“We got to keep some humbleness and keep our head down. There’s some great competition out here.

“Yeah, it’s been two great weekends. I’m just thrilled to death for our company. There’s a lot of people just working their guts out, trying to push, work within the limits of the rules and regulations, but not leave anything on the table, at the same time executing at the highest of levels, whether it be on pit road, restarts, whatever else it takes. I’m happy for them, their efforts getting them the results they deserve.”

Keselowski himself threw away a win in Richmond but still finished P6. He was P4 on Monday in Michigan giving RFK Racing four combined top six finishes in four opportunities the last two weeks now. Keselowski has four top sixes alone in his last five races now too.

“We got a lot of racing left in front of us,” he continued. “We’re now in a position to have at least one car fully locked in the Playoffs, and realistically both cars are probably locked in the Playoffs with today’s results. That’s super exciting.

“Not officially, Ford, don’t get mad at me, but realistically (smiling).”

With Ford only having 4 wins this season, RFK Racing has two of them. Penske, Keselowski’s former team, has the other 2. However, one could say that there’s not much a difference between Penske and RFK Racing anymore either.

Keselowski says that he wouldn’t want to quantify that yet, but he does feel like they’re in a really good spot already.

“I don’t know how you would measure that. How do you quantify what’s best and what’s not?

“If you go by wins, yeah, we’ve got a win and we’re locked in the Playoffs. That feels good, right? I think we’re on a good streak. If you go by points, I think the 12 and the 22 are maybe in front of us in points.

“Fords, we’re all really close. 12, 22, 17, the 4, we’re all very close in points. I don’t know how you quantify who’s best and who’s not.

“I think the four cars – the 22, 12, 4 and 17 – are all right on top of each other. I’m right there as well. Maybe the five of us you could lay a blanket over.

“We do have two cars and we’re a two-car team, and we have both cars there. We don’t have any good cars or bad cars. We don’t have any bad cars, which that feels good.

“We’re positioning ourselves to get there one day, and I’m proud of that. That’s earned, right? You got to earn that title. You do that with winning multiple races and contending for championships. We’re knocking on the door of that.

“Until we are walking in at Phoenix with three or four win stickers on our cars, it’s hard to say that we’re the best. That’s what we want to be.”

They’re well on their way. Compared to this time last year, Keselowski had 0 top 5 finishes and 3 top 10’s. This year, he has 5 top 5 finishes and 10 top 10’s. Buescher had 1 top 5 and 6 top 10’s at this point in 2022 where this season he has 5 top 5’s and 10 top 10’s.

Both have improved their finishing position by 4-6 spots too. Keselowski from 19.0 to 14.0 with Buescher from 17.95 to 13.0.

“I mean, so much has happened in 15 years I’ve been there,” said Buescher. “But the last two years, last 18 months, just to see the turnaround, new car kind of being a good reset for us, to be able to be competing for wins.

“A lot of different size racetracks, a couple checkered flags now, some great pit strategy there, great pit stops. It’s every department working hard to make this happen and get us this checkered flag.”

Keselowski said the peaks and valleys are as high and low there than anywhere else.

“Yeah, the highs are high and the lows are low over here,” he said. “We had a lot of lows last year. It’s nice to have these high marks. I don’t take ’em for granted. They mean more to me probably because of how big a struggle last year was for both teams. Probably even more specifically for me.

“I’m thrilled for it. I know the work that goes into it on all aspects. I’m thrilled for every department of our company, from the marketing side through all of competition.

“We’ve come so far. We still have a long ways to go to get to where I want us to be, but we’re building some really strong momentum with these wins.

“I’m just as curious as anyone else to see where it goes from here. I try not to have expectations for good or bad. I just try to do our best, see what that plays out to on the field.”

Buescher had just two career Cup wins in his first 278 starts. He’s now won two races in-a-row. Can he three peat on Sunday?

His odds are better than you might think.

Buescher has been a vastly improved road racer including being eighth, fourth and 10th respectively on these courses this season. He rebounded from a fire to finish 10th last year. Now, he enters on the heels of two straight wins on the season too.

“I’m tickled to death that we’re as strong as we were this weekend and last weekend,” said Brad Keselowski. “Looking for big things in Indy off that momentum. I know Chris is one of the best road course drivers in the series. Last year he probably deserved to win that race, but caught some terrible breaks. He’s going to have a heck of a shot next week. I’m happy for him.”

The only thing is, don’t expect much out of his teammate, Keselowski himself this weekend however. These have become his worst tracks. He’s finished 35th, 16th and 24th on them this season. Last year, he was 14th, 10th, 33rd, 20th, 19th and 14th respectively. Even in 2021 he went fifth, 19th, 15th, 13th, 35th, 24th and 20th respectively.

He’s finished 13th or worse in 16 of his last 18 starts on these tracks.

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