The first two NASCAR Cup Series road course races of 2025 produced very different results. At Circuit of the Americas back in March, Christopher Bell prevailed in a late-race battle against several drivers who, like himself, have championship aspirations.
Compare that to Sunday (June 14) and the second road course race of the year at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. In the Cup Series’ inaugural trip to Mexico City, Shane van Gisbergen took the field to the woodshed in a dominant performance. This win, the second of SVG’s career, gives him a pass to the playoffs, although his struggles throughout the season indicate that he will not be a championship contender.
Regardless of what happens with van Gisbergen in the postseason, his victory serves as a reminder that road courses are opportunity races. Drivers who do not contend for wins every single week can change the course of their season with a win, or at least a good points day.
Chris Buescher is undoubtedly one of those drivers. He is one of the best in the field at grinding out good finishes at road courses, and his most recent win was at Watkins Glen International last year. With three road course races remaining before the postseason, he could easily put the No. 17 Ford back in victory lane and punch his ticket to the playoffs, just as SVG did on Sunday.
However, there is a key difference between van Gisbergen’s situation and Buescher’s. Going into the Mexico City race, SVG was 33rd in overall points. He was not mathematically eliminated from reaching the playoffs on points, but there was no realistic scenario where he could have gotten into the postseason without a win. That meant that van Gisbergen and Trackhouse Racing had to throw everything they could at the four remaining road course races, hoping that the No. 88 team could win at least one. It is not surprising that van Gisbergen and his team were in that position, but a lack of surprise does not make the pressure any less real. Credit SVG and Trackhouse for getting what they needed out of the go-for-broke strategy.
Buescher, on the other hand, has more options. He is currently the playoff bubble driver, ahead of the cut line by 19 points. Even if he has a lousy run this weekend at Pocono Raceway, Buescher would not need a Hail Mary win to reach the postseason. Steady performances will get the job done, and that strategy is right in Buescher’s wheelhouse. Do not forget how, in 2015, he beat the heavily-favored Chase Elliott for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship by logging consistent finishes each week.
On the other hand, consistency did nothing for Buescher and the No. 17 team last year. Through the first 16 races of 2024, Buescher was 13th on the playoff grid with 412 points. Not only did he lack a win, but he had also experienced some brutal losses.
At Kansas Speedway, Buescher lost to Kyle Larson in a photo finish where Larson’s margin of victory was one thousandth of a second. A week later, Buescher was battling Tyler Reddick for the win at Darlington Raceway when contact between the two drivers cut the No. 17’s tire. Buescher was very displeased with Reddick after the race, insisting that the lack of a win put him in a difficult spot. As the weeks went by, Buescher never got his win, and he did not have enough points to take one of the last two open playoff spots. The Watkins Glen victory came during the postseason, and although it ended the No. 17 team’s winless drought, it was too little, too late to participate in the playoffs.
You have to wonder if the memories of last season are still with Buescher and his team, and if those memories might affect their approach to the rest of the regular season. Along with being on the playoff bubble, Buescher has 373 points for the season so far. That is 39 less than he had at this time last year, although Buescher’s 2025 total includes a 30-point penalty issued after Kansas, which was originally a 60-point penalty that got reduced on appeal. If the entire penalty had stuck, Buescher would be below the cut line, looking up at RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece, who lost a top-five finish at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this year through disqualification. So many factors on track or off track can swing the points standings for or against a driver, which makes Buescher’s position very tough.
Suppose the No. 17 team decides to concentrate on the remaining three road course races of the regular season. Should Buescher and his team shoot for the moon and try to win, or play it safer and collect points? Doing both may not be possible. Typically, the way to build points at a road course race is to collect stage points, which usually requires staying on track late in a stage and then pitting under the following caution. The downside is that you have to give up all your track position to the drivers who pitted before the end of the stage, making it harder to win the race.
Buescher, who got burned last year by not having a win, may want a more aggressive strategy. However, such a strategy would run counter to one of the things that the No. 17 team does better than most, earning lots of points and getting good finishes at road courses. And although Buescher is a good road course driver when measured by average finish, he does not typically lead a lot of laps in road course races. It is one thing to bet on Buescher getting a good finish at a road course, but winning a road course race outright is something that he has only done once at the Cup Series level.
It feels like the natural inclination for Buescher and his team would be to pad their points in the upcoming road course races. However, do not be surprised if the No. 17 team tries to go for a win instead. The Watkins Glen victory last year may have done nothing for Buescher’s postseason, but he did win that race by beating van Gisbergen straight up in an overtime finish. Doing something like that again would be a very risky path to take to the playoffs. Yet after the disappointment of 2024, it could be exactly what Buescher does to change the course of his season.
Bryan began writing for Frontstretch in 2016. He has penned Up to Speed for the past eight years. A lifelong student of auto racing, Bryan is a published author and automotive historian. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio and currently resides in Southern Kentucky.