RFK RACING
DARLINGTON RACEWAY – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Date: September 6, 2026
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Darlington Raceway (1.3 mile egg-shaped oval) – Darlington, SC
Format: 501 miles / 367 laps with three stages. Stage 1: Ends at lap 115, Stage 2: Ends at lap 230, Stage 3: Ends at lap 367
NOTES Qualifying was cancelled due to weather and the starting order was set by the rule book.
RFK Racing RACE SUMMARY: Ryan Preece isn’t satisfied with his Cinderella Daytona story. He wants more. He and the 60 team persevered at Darlington, adjusting throughout the race to dial in the Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang and capture a top ten finish in the Chase opener. While Preece led the Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) trio, teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski fought through adversity. Using strategy and determination Buescher and crew chief Scott Graves overcame a bent toe link to turn in a 20th place finish. Team owner / driver Brad Keselowski clawed his way back from an early race incident to finish 23rd.
DRIVER HIGHLIGHTS
Ryan Preece – No. 60 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Finish: 10th
Start: 3rd
Laps Led: —
Stage Results: S1-7th, S2-20th
Headline takeaway: Ryan Preece clawed and scrapped his way back from at one point being a lap down, to rally to strong top ten finish in the Chase opener. In the process Preece has moved up one spot in the standings.
Preece Quote: “It was definitely a team effort. I thought the Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang was good, not phenomenal. But (crew chief) Derrick (Finley) kept working on it, and some nghts you’ve got to persevere like this. So thanks to Derrick, the guys and everybody on the pit crew for putting together a good night when we needed it and just keep plugging away. Nine more and I feel good about Gateway so I’m looking forward to it.”
Chris Buescher – No. 17 Kroger / Gold Peak Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Finish: 20th
Start: 35th
Laps Led: —
Stage Results: S1-17th, S2-30th
Headline takeaway: In the midst of an incredible charge through the field, working his way from 35th starting position into the top 15, Buescher sustained damage that cost track position. Buescher never wavered and after the 17 team made repairs he recovered to finish 20th.
Buescher Quote: “We had good fire off and got going and were able to pass a ton of cars after unfortunately getting qualifying rained out, so it was a big start. We kind of got rolling there. I don’t know where we were running exactly, but I had a moment off four and got the fence and bent some rear suspension and spent most of the race just hanging on until we had a chance to fix it under yellow. That was all of the second stage waiting and then we finally got it fixed and was just trying to get our laps back. We finally got them there with 30 laps to go and just didn’t have enough racing left to recover. It’s unfortunate. I screwed up and I hate it for this team. They had a lot of high hopes coming in here and didn’t get the result out of it. I’m a big fan of what the chase format and the fact that we can still reset and keep digging, but we’re gonna need some phenomenal weeks to really get back in the hunt here after that, which we kind of knew from the get-go that it was gonna take that. A couple more tracks coming up in the immediate future and I really don’t feel like we have any bad ones, so we’ll be in a good spot.”
Brad Keselowski – No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Finish: 23rd
Start: 12th
Laps Led: —
Stage Results: S1-19th, S2–25th
Headline takeaway: A early race collision from behind forced Brad Keselowski into the wall and resulted in a subsequent spin. The 6 rallied afterwards to make up some of the lost ground and finished 23rd.
Keselowski Quote: “We had a good race car early on. We were really good on long runs and were biding out time waiting to make adjustments. It’s a long race and we felt like we had something to work with. Unfortunately we had an incident with another car and it impacted our night. We were playing catchup from there.”
Point Standings:
Buescher: 11th
Preece: 15th
Keselowski: 18th
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is September 13 at World Wide Technology Raceway (1.25 Mile egg-shaped oval – Madison, IL). The race begins at 3:00 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA Sports and the Motor Racing Network.
About RFK Racing
RFK Racing, in its 39th season in 2026, features an ownership lineup pairing one of the sport’s most iconic names, Jack Roush, along with NASCAR Champion, Brad Keselowski, and Fenway Sports Group owner John Henry. Roush initially founded the team in 1988 and it has since become one of the most successful racing operations in the world, propelling him to be the first NASCAR owner to amass three hundred wins and capturing eight championships, including back-to-back NASCAR Cup titles in 2003 and 2004. Keselowski, a former owner in the NASCAR Truck Series, is the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series Champion. In 2007, Roush partnered with Henry, who also owns Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox, English Premier League’s Liverpool F.C., and the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, to form Roush Fenway Racing. Off the track, RFK is a leader and proven winner in NASCAR marketing solutions, having produced multiple award-winning social media, digital content and experiential marketing campaigns. Visit https://www.rfkracing.com/ and follow the team on all social platforms @rfkracing.
