Chris Buescher officially reached a major career milestone by taking the green flag for his 400th career start in the NASCAR Cup Series during Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway. The race served as the penultimate contest of the 2026 season and The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
Pilot of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, Buescher began the day's event from the 18th position on the grid. He entered Sunday's race sitting 16th in the points standings.
I feel like we’ve been on pins and needles through a lot of the years,
Reflecting on the journey ahead of the weekend, Buescher shared some perspective in a Wednesday Zoom teleconference. “It’s kind of went by surprisingly quick. Fortunately, it’s been a lot of fun along the way,” Buescher said. “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.”
His path to this milestone includes plenty of history across the garage. Buescher has raced for RFK since the 2020 season, capturing five victories with the organization. His breakout campaign came in 2023 with three wins, alongside career-high marks of nine top fives and 17 top 10s, carrying him all the way to the Round of 8 before elimination at Martinsville that year. Before that, he ran his first full-time Cup campaign with Front Row Motorsports in 2016, taking his maiden victory in a fog-shortened race at Pocono Raceway, and spent 2017 through 2019 driving full-time for JTG Daugherty Racing (now Hyak Motorsports). He also claimed the 2015 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship with RFK, scoring two wins and 20 top-10 finishes on his way to the title.
While he admits to never having a single moment that made him feel like he had officially "made it," Buescher remains deeply appreciative of the competitive platform RFK provided.
“I feel like we’ve been on pins and needles through a lot of the years,” Buescher said. “Jack 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.”
