When the dust settled at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon, RFK Racing's Chris Buescher did what Chris Buescher does: quietly rack up another solid finish.
Buescher's fifth place effort was only his second top five finish of the year, but it was his second top five effort in a row. He also placed second at Talladega Superspeedway one week prior.
But in typical Chris Buescher fashion, it was his eighth consecutive top 14 finish, and on only one occasion in 2026 has he finished outside of the top 15.
Chris Buescher tops in NASCAR without a Cup win
Six drivers have found victory lane through the first 11 races of the 2026 season, and all of them are in the top seven in the point standings. Buescher hasn't found victory lane, and he's fifth, having passed Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson as the top winless driver after Sunday's Wurth 400. He leads Larson by 27 points in that category.
He's also sixth in points excluding stage results, the best among all winless drivers in that category as well, placing him 15 points ahead of teammate Brad Keselowski.
It's quite fitting for the driver of the No. 17 Ford, too. Since his three-race oval winning streak to end the 2023 regular season, his only win came in 2024 on the road course at Watkins Glen International. Yet despite missing the playoffs in both 2024 and 2025, he was one of the strongest and most consistent drivers both years.
His average finish in 2024 was the seventh-best in the series. In 2025, he improved it to sixth-best. Yet simply because he didn't win during the regular season, he wasn't a part of the 16-driver playoff field in either season.
Buescher was always one of the drivers who stood to benefit most from NASCAR's shift away from the "win and in" playoff format to the points-based "Chase" postseason setup. He was one of two drivers who didn't make it in a year ago but would have been in comfortably had the 2026 rules been in place.
He's not flashy at all, he takes care of his equipment, he doesn't make waves, and he gets out of his car what he can get out of it. He's been criticized by some for having a low ceiling, but his out-of-nowhere 2023 hot streak proved that he is fully capable of capitalizing on momentum from time to time, too.
Race number 12 on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Go Bowling at The Glen, which is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from Watkins Glen International beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 10. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!