RFK Racing is right in the middle of NASCAR’s Silly Season chaos. The team heads into 2027 with only two permanent charters despite running three full-time cars in 2026. But this problem could turn into something far more interesting than just a charter issue, with whispers around the garage suggesting competing manufacturers are quietly circling one of RFK’s drivers.
Chris Buescher – NASCAR Silly Season’s hottest hidden name
“He has definitely had a lot of interest from teams, and Chris [Buescher], for a long time, is regarded as one of the more underrated drivers in the Cup Series garage, where if you put him in an upper echelon organization, a Gibbs, a Hendrick, a Penske, he’s going to win races for you and contend for the championship,” Jordan Bianchi said about the 33-year-old on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.
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“He’s that kind of elite talent. There are teams that are certainly interested in him. I know two organizations that have had their eye on him.”
It was a massive Silly Season nugget from the NASCAR insider, but Freddie Kraft had an even more revealing follow-up.
“One’s a Ford. If it’s not Roush, you probably figure out what the other one is. And then one’s a Toyota. It’s not my team. I don’t think so,” he said.
He wasn’t naming names. But he didn’t really need to either. By ruling out RFK on the Ford side and his own 23XI Racing on the Toyota side, the process of elimination does the talking. It’s a Ford team, and most likely Joe Gibbs Racing, who’s keeping a tab on the 33-year-old.
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Currently in a contract year, Buescher has quietly established himself as one of the most consistent drivers in the garage. He hasn’t really competed for a win. But with an average start and finish position of 12th, two top fives and six top 10s so far this season, the numbers speak for themselves. And that’s with the charter uncertainty hanging over his head the entire time.
Where Buescher has truly separated himself from the others is on road courses.
He has quietly emerged as one of NASCAR’s most dangerous road racers over the past several seasons. Buescher has finished on the lead lap in 40 consecutive road course races since Sonoma in 2017, the longest such streak in NASCAR history. He has been among the very best in the series on challenging tracks, with an average road course finish of 10th.
Buescher has already demonstrated his ability to surpass expectations long before RFK’s current resurgence. After winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015, he worked with JTG Daugherty Racing for years to get success out of underfunded rides before settling at RFK.
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Now, according to the garage chatter, some of NASCAR’s biggest organizations are paying close attention. Naturally, the reported Ford team leads to Team Penske, where Austin Cindric’s long-term future in the No. 2 car is still up for debate. Meanwhile, the Toyota side of the rumor mill has naturally led many toward Joe Gibbs Racing, if Denny Hamlin ultimately decides to retire at the end of the season.
Right now, it’s all still firmly in rumor territory. But in a NASCAR Silly Season already dominated by charter uncertainty and garage politics, Chris Buescher suddenly feels less like an underrated veteran and more like the one driver everyone secretly wants before somebody else gets him first.
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