WATKINS GLEN, N. Y. — Chris Buescher had 11 laps.
He also had a 4.5-second lead over road course ace Shane van Gisbergen and a chance to play spoiler in the playoffs for the second time in three years.
Then the left-rear tire on Harrison Burton‘s No. 21 Ford self-immolated.
Cue the debris caution.
The RFK Racing driver’s chance to ride a large lead and “cruise across the line to a pretty easy victory” had gone kaput.
Buescher’s thoughts sitting inside his No. 17 Ford?
“Disgust,” he said. “That was pure disgust at that point.”
Disgusted, but “probably not very surprised,” Buescher also admitted.
He had passed Burton before the caution was issued and had seen the tire “carcass hanging on for dear life through turn 6. …
“I had a bad feeling at that point,” he said. “It’s not something that caught me off guard, but it was frustrating.”
Instead of cruising, Buescher was going to have to fight, survive and then duel one of the best in the road course business.
There were three restarts — and one in overtime — before it was all said and done.
Buescher kept the lead on the first two.
Then on the overtime attempt, van Gisbergen got to Buescher’s right-rear quarter panel as they neared turn 1. There was a glancing blow between the two cars.
It wasn’t a lot, just “a little bump to get him wide,” but it was enough to make van Gisbergen to drive like hell when he took the lead in the Esses.
“I knew I was going to get it back, so that’s why I was pushing so hard,” van Gisbergen said.
As he “tailed” the No. 16 car for the next lap, Buescher “knew that was going to be a very tough pass” to reclaim the lead from van Gisbergen.
As they took the white flag, Buescher realized he had “gained a little bit” on him. Going through the esses, he noted van Gisbergen “just hanging on to it really loose.”
Sitting atop the No. 17 pit box, crew chief Scott Graves didn’t think Buescher was going to be able to get back to van Gisbergen.
But then, as the two cars sped out of the Esses, Buescher’s spotter keyed on the radio.
“I heard the spotter say, ‘He’s gaining on him,'” Graves recalled. “I was like ‘Oh, OK. I didn’t know we were getting back to him.'”
As they closed on the Bus Stop, Buescher “had a feeling that something big was getting ready to happen.
“Sure enough … “
In a perfect world, Buescher said his attempt at a winning move wouldn’t have taken place going into the Bus Stop.
“I really had been really good through the carousel, so I wanted to get through the Bus Stop clean,” Buescher said. “I drove in hard, but I wasn’t going to go crazy.
“[van Gisbergen] was still digging when I lifted, and he was two car lengths ahead. Just kind of clicked at that moment that that was probably not going to stick through there, and it was going to open up an opportunity for us.”
His racing sense proved right.
As van Gisbergen said later, a “driver error” occurred as the two raced out of the Bus Stop.
“As I turned, I got a bit loose and clipped the inside wall,” van Gisbergen said. “I’m gutted.”
As Van Gisbergen’s “big slide” unfolded in front of him, Buescher tried to turn to the left.
“I went to try and cross over … He tried to cover it, and had already gotten (my) fender in,” Buescher said. “Just was able to get clear of him off the carousel and run.”
Graves felt his driver took the lead “respectfully.”
“I know he’s been used up a lot worse this year in a lot of other circumstances. I’m proud of him for what he did. I know he learned a lot this year.”
Graves then cited Buescher losing by .001 seconds to Kyle Larson in the spring race at Kansas Speedway.
“He learned a lot from Kansas,” Graves said. “Obviously, Larson ran him down the track and got him sideways to get the win there.
“I know he regrets that and lives that in his mind a lot this year. So to come back in that situation, I mean, rightfully he had a four-and-a-half-second lead. The race was his. He went and took it. I’m proud of him for that.”
Even in the immediate aftermath of the win, the first for RFK Racing at the New York road course since Mark Martin won a third consecutive race here in 1995, Buescher took pride in the finish its place in Watkins Glen lore.
“It was a lot of fun, just a good, old-fashioned hard battle to the end,” Buescher said. “There’s been so many fantastic last one or two laps here at the Glen, and I certainly feel like I’m going to go back and watch that one and going to feel like it’s going to add up right there with some of the old-school [Marcos] Ambrose—[Brad] Keselowski battles or a handful of others.
“It’s going to be a good one.”
It was a day for spoilers.
In the second race of the playoffs, none of the drivers in the top five were in the playoff field.
Van Gisbergen isn’t even full-time in the Cup Series.
Despite the “difficult mindset” of missing the playoffs, not being in championship contention actually helped Sunday, according to Buescher.
“If we’re going to be blunt about it, not having to think about points at all on the playoff side of it or any cutoffs, opened up more opportunities for us today to be able to go out there and get that win,” Buescher said.
Buescher wants to keep being ‘The Spoiler’ “as much as we can in the next seven or eight weeks coming up.”
It helps that the next stop on the circuit is Buescher’s “favorite racetrack,” Bristol Motor Speedway.
He won there in the playoffs in 2022.
“Played spoiler there two years ago,” Buescher said. “We can go do that one again.”
About the author
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.
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Sometimes Karma is a bitch, but other times it gives you a big wet kiss on the lips. Buescher was owed one.
Why did it take the Tower so long to throw the caution? Tire shreds were flying off long before the carcass started slapping around. And even then, the carcass was flipping and flapping a long time before the caution was thrown.