Has RFK Racing become Ford’s best?

Truex keeps car, conscience clean

Neither Chris Buescher nor Brad Keselowski will say it. At this point, they probably feel they shouldn’t have to.

But Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing has become the best organization in the Ford camp. If Buescher’s win at Richmond a week ago hinted at it, his follow-up victory at Michigan on Monday sealed the case.

No verbal closing arguments needed. “We’ re letting our results speak for themselves ,” driver and team co-owner Keselowski said .“When you can win, it feels really good but we’ ve got to keep some humbleness and keep our heads down.”

And the two victories couldn’ t have come at more different tracks. Looking ahead, both cars have shown speed on superspeedways and Buescher is among the sport’s best road-course racers.

So, is RFK a title cont ender? Is it the best Ford has to offer?

Judge for yourself.

Or read between the lines.

Let’s go through the gears.

First gear: At odds Sunday, at ease and still kicking on Monday

Ryan B laney is still planning to play kickball. And that’s good for everyone, most notably the Kannapolis YMCA

Before the rain out on Sunday, Corey LaJoie and B laney got together when a late slide-job attempt from LaJoie pushed both drivers up the track. B laney doored LaJoie on the fr ont stretch a la p later to show his displeasure. The two were seen having a lengthy talk on pit road before LaJoie was interviewed.

“We were talking about kickball, what position he wants to play,” LaJoie said.

It was in reference to LaJoie’s Kickball Klassic, a tournament held in Kannapolis, N.C., benefit ting the local YMCA. Tickets for the event are still available.

And despite the dustup, Blaney is still in.

Second gear: Martin Truex Jr. keeps car, conscious clean

While contact, crashes and drama have come in w aves this season, Mar tin Truex Jr. has rarely if ever been at thec enter of any of it and that wasn’ t going to change Monday, no matter how good his car was.

Truex couldn’t find a clean way around Buescher over the last 30 laps and though a couple of opportunities to force the issue presented themselves, he refused. Buescher thank ed Truex f or his clean driving after, and for Truex, anything else was never an option.

“I could’ve easily got into him there ,” Truex said .“I feel like we’ve had a respectful relationship on the race track and I wasn’t going to do anything to wreck him or take a chance on wrecking both of us. Second (place) is better than that.”

Third gear: Kyle Busch longs for ‘old days,' more room

While things were all good between Blaney and La Joie, Kyle Busch wasn’ t around to say whether his ill will toward Blaney carried over into Monday. The two were racing hard side-by-side early on Sunday when Busch lost control and smashed the wall, bringing out the race’s first caution. He finished last (37th).

“They all run hard, they all want to race to crash ,” Busch said .“I tried to make a move and in the old days, guys that you were racing, they’ d let you go and have that spot and work for it later but this day and age it’s completely different. So, I got a guy that ran on my outside and took the air off."

Fourth gear: Indy Road Course trends

Next week will mark the third trip to the Indy road course in the Cup Series and if rumors are any indication, it may be the last. AJ All mending er and Tyler Reddick each have a win with All mending er and Cindric the only two drivers to finish in the top 10 in both races.