Yahoo Autos RFK crew chief Graves is riding a wave years in the making
Of all the satisfaction and pride flowing around RFK Racing after Chris Buescher and the No. 17 team’s triumph Sunday at Richmond Raceway, don’t overlook that of crew chief Scott Graves.
Graves is now a two-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series. Both of his victories have come with Buescher, and both within the last 10 months. But it’s been years in the making for one of most quiet, under-the-radar leaders in the garage.
“It’s been up and down and a lot of years of frustration,” Graves said. “I always wanted to be part of a team that executed at this level. So that means a lot to me personally.”
It hasn’t been a straight shot through the Cup Series for Graves. First hired by Roush in 2006, Graves worked his way through the system from engineer to crew chief. His first opportunity as a full-time crew chief at the premier level came in 2013 with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. It was an average year for a rookie driver and crew chief, the duo finishing 19th in the championship standings with three top-10 finishes and claiming Rookie of the Year honors.
A year later, Graves was in the Xfinity Series and working with Chris Buescher. In two years, Graves guided Buescher to three wins and the championship in 2015.
“If you go back to 2015, we won our championship in the Mustang on the Xfinity side, and we left Homestead and got to the banquet and we all knew as a team that we didn’t have any plans going forward,” Buescher said. “That nobody knew where they were going to end up and it wasn’t a good place for anybody, and it really took away some of the celebration that you wanted to enjoy when you’re sitting there knowing that everybody has to figure out what they’re going to do for work the next year.
“To be able to reunite with Scott on top of the box and to be able to have that success, to have Mike Herman Jr. on the spotter stand again like we did back then as well, and picking up where we left off several years back… that gives you a good sense of satisfaction. We’re all able to work together and start to recreate some of the successes from back then.”
Buescher was promoted to the Cup Series in 2016 with Front Row Motorsports. Graves stayed in the Xfinity Series but moved to Joe Gibbs Racing. He guided Suarez to the championship in their year together.
Graves stayed at Gibbs for three seasons. The last two were back in the Cup Series with Suarez before he returned to Jack Roush’s organization in 2019. Despite working with veteran and former Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman, results were still hard to come by for all involved.
The highlight was squeezing into the last spot of the 2019 playoffs, which was a run that ended in the first round. Yet for Roush, it was a huge moment as the team hadn’t been in the postseason in 13 years.
Graves is in a good place with Buescher and RFK, but he’s had to take a few detours to get there. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images
In the fall of 2021, before race weekend at the Charlotte Roval, Roush swapped the crew chiefs and road crews between Newman and Buescher, who had returned in-house to the organization in 2020.
In the first race of their reunification, Graves and Buescher finished third at the Roval. The duo earned two top-10 finishes in the five races they spent together before the season ended.
“We worked together on the Xfinity (Series) side and had that relationship and success there,” Graves said. “With the way things work in the industry, we ended up getting split and going different ways for a while. For us to get back together at that point at the end of 2021, it really worked out well. We just kind of fell back into the way we had worked before in the past.
“I think our personalities work well together. (We) both stay fairly calm. Chris does a good job of that in the car, just giving the feedback without getting too worried or stressed out during a race. I’m able to read that, I guess, in a good way, and hopefully more often be able to get him the faster cars that he’s looking for.”
Brad Keselowski bought into the company in 2022 and has had a hand in putting the pieces together for Roush to return to its elite status. A victory for Graves and Buescher at Bristol Motor Speedway last fall was a confidence boost.
It was the second career win for Buescher, and the long-awaited first in the series for Graves.
The Richmond result earned Buescher a spot in the Cup Series playoffs, giving RFK Racing its first postseason appearance since 2019 when Graves and Newman were there. It will also be the second appearance in the championship hunt for Buescher.
“I think Brad talking about his impact, (we) wouldn’t be able to do this if he hadn’t come into the company and really helped give the leadership,” Graves said. “I know he says maybe he doesn’t feel like he does a lot, but I think the expectations he brings… not only just the expectations, he actually gives us the tools to do it. That’s probably something that we lacked before.
“There’s always an expectation, and sometimes didn’t always have the tools that we needed and the resources to get there. I feel like he’s been really critical to that.
“To be able to see this build, get the team better, it means a lot to me because I really fought hard for this for a lot of years and wanted to be at this level. To see it come to fruition means a lot.”
