It was a great day and a bad day for RFK Racing.
Team co-owner Brad Keselowski held on for the win at Darlington Raceway to end a 110-race NASCAR Cup Series winless streak dating back to the 2021 spring race at Talladega.
Keselowski lined up next to race leader Tyler Reddick on the front row for a restart with 34 laps to go and the two went side by side until they came into contact and slowed, allowing Keselowski’s teammate Chris Buescher to dive inside of the pair and take the lead.
Buescher was looking for the win that eluded him last week at Kansas Speedway, when he lost the closest race in NASCAR Cup Series history to Kyle Larson.
Things went even worse for him this time around has he tapped the wall with 10 to go and then Reddick pushed up into him, damaging both cars and taking them out of the race.
Keselowski was almost home free except for a hard-charging Ty Gibbs, who got within .75 seconds of him, but fell off on the last lap and finished second.
“It’s one heck of a day,” Keselowski said after the race. “Whether it’s your first win or your last with this is a really special track. It’s the history of NASCAR. It’s as tough as it gets and then, that battle at the end, with my teammate, Tyler Reddick and we just all laid it all out on the line, it’s freaking awesome, man.”
Buescher approached Reddick after the race and gave him a shove and words, to which Reddick responded with an apology.
Keselowski’s win was the first for a Ford team in all three NASCAR of the national series this year.