In the NASCAR garage, some drivers often get overshadowed by the spotlight on big winners or those stirring up drama with incidents or bold comments. This season, Chris Buescher has quietly gone about his business, steering clear of the headlines despite consistent runs. Without a single victory in 2025 and just five top-five finishes, he sat outside the playoffs, watching others race for the championship. Yet his steady presence hints at untapped potential waiting to break through, like the one he showed at the Roval.

At Charlotte, Buescher delivered a solid fourth-place finish, showcasing the kind of speed that turns heads in a field full of playoff pressure. His RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece joined him in sixth place, signaling team-wide progress on a tricky layout. With only one road course win under his belt, from Watkins Glen in 2024, this fresh road performance by the No. 17 could be a sign of bigger things to come.

Chris Buescher’s underrated road course prowess shines through

Chris Buescher’s post-race chat at the Charlotte Roval revealed a driver who’s confident in his road course abilities, even if the broader conversation often overlooks him. When asked if his skills are underrated, he responded, “I mean, we’ve made ourselves pretty known on these things. We’re always good and we’ve had a few glimpses of greatness on them, but still just have a little bit to get over that crest.”

This reflects his history of strong showings, like his 2024 Watkins Glen victory and a third-place there in August this year, where he averaged top-10 finishes across multiple road courses. But finishing fourth at the Roval, despite starting mid-pack and navigating a chaotic field, underscores how RFK Racing tuned a competitive Ford Mustang, allowing him to lead briefly for five laps and hold position all day, a step up from past struggles at the track.

That fourth-place run isn’t just a one-off; it boosts Buescher‘s momentum on road courses, where he’s notched eight top-fives in his career, including consistent top-10s at Sonoma and the Roval in recent years. He added, “It’s a team we’re on, a great race car, and it’s a lot of fun to drive today. Just one more, ultimately, but a solid day for us.”

Without playoff distractions, Buescher raced aggressively yet cleanly, noting it “didn’t cross my mind a single time” to ease up around contenders. This mindset, paired with RFK’s overall speed, evident in both cars finishing strong, positions him to chase more glory on similar tracks, building confidence for 2026’s road-heavy schedule.

RFK Racing’s duel at the Roval highlights a team finding its groove, especially after a season of ups and downs. Ryan Preece, securing sixth in his first year with the outfit, shared, “I feel like at many of these road courses—Mexico, Watkins Glen, COTA, and here—we’ve had strong days for it being my first time at these tracks with RFK Racing. This result with our Ford Mustang is definitely something to build on and keep progressing from.”

Coming off a 10-week slump, Preece’s career best at the Roval complements Buescher’s effort, showing RFK’s setups excel on twists and turns. For Buescher, eyeing that next level, he emphasized, “That’s really strong for road racing for us. That’ll help us going forward for sure.” This collective performance could fuel team-wide improvements, turning solid days into wins.

While Buescher and RFK celebrated their non-playoff success, the Roval’s real drama unfolded in the battle for survival. As the dust settled, four drivers saw their championship dreams end abruptly.

Roval’s ruthless playoff cuts

The 2025 Charlotte Roval race served as a brutal eliminator, whittling the playoff field down to eight with high-stakes moves and costly errors defining the day. Shane van Gisbergen‘s dominant 15-second win as a non-playoff spoiler set the tone, but the focus stayed on the cutoff line, where drivers like Ross Chastain and Joey Logano fought desperately for the final entry spot.0

Chastain summed up his self-inflicted exit: “I single-handedly took a car out of the Round of 8 and a chance to go to the Round of 4. In two months, we’ve elevated ourselves from, I’d say, an 18th-place car to an eighth-place car, and today we were good enough to run top five, and I took us out of that.”

Entering below the line, Chastain ultimately lost the spot to Logano after a pit road speeding penalty and losing track positions, followed by the last-lap collision with Denny Hamlin, crossing the line in an epic reverse fashion. His background of aggressive driving, which earned him a reputation since joining Trackhouse in 2022, backfired here, dropping him from contention despite a car capable of top-five pace, which fans saw in the stage 1 finish.

Tyler Reddick, starting from the pole, couldn’t capitalize on his speed, struggling with long-run handling that kept him from challenging the leaders. He reflected, “I don’t know if anything necessarily went wrong today for how the race was playing out. We wanted to prioritize setting up to win the race. I think you could pick it apart, a couple restarts and what not, just kind of, as the race unfolded our long run was not where it needed to be with the top guys.”

Reddick’s 23XI Racing tenure has seen him rise as a road course threat, with wins at COTA and Road America in prior years, but this 10th-place finish ended his shot at advancing, highlighting how setup choices can doom even a front-runner in playoffs.

Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric joined the eliminated, with Wallace’s mid-pack 15th-place run falling short of the win he needed, and Cindric’s day ending early after a crash with Carson Hocevar damaged his suspension. This round’s cuts underscore the playoffs’ unforgiving nature, where one mistake amid a strong season, like Chastain’s, can erase months of progress.