WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — While Shane van Gisbergen trounced the field late to win his fourth straight road course race Sunday (Aug. 10), RFK Racing had a pretty good day.
It could have been even greater.
Chris Buescher chose not to pit before the end of lap 18. That allowed him to take the lead and win stage one, giving him an all-important playoff point. However, it also meant that he was off-sequence with the top runners.
Once the race went back green, Buescher was stuck on older tires and dropped through the field behind those who pitted before the stage break. That slide continued until he made his first pit stop.
Later in the day, pit strategy allowed Buescher to charge up to second late in the going. However, he abused his tires getting there. That allowed van Gisbergen to gap him at the rate of nearly a second a lap in the closing laps.
The tire fade allowed Christopher Bell to get past on the final lap for second. Despite that, a third-place finish was still a good outcome.
“We had a really fast racecar again, just definitely took the opportunity to capitalize on some big stage points there early,” Buescher told NBC Sports after the race. “Still got back up into second there and was making some pretty good headway. But just used it up really hard trying to get by a couple of cars and get to that track position, and fell off pretty hard there at the end.”
The great finish did help in the standings. Buescher’s gap is up from 23 to 32 points over teammate Ryan Preece, while he’s 26 points behind Alex Bowman. He’s still 10th in the overall standings, but not where he wants to be.
“To head into the next two weeks, racetracks that we’ve won at, certainly not the best place to be, but to put some more points on the board, ultimately that just comes from fast race cars,” Buescher said. “Go to the next two, be fast, and it should take care of itself.”
Preece used a similar strategy to Buescher but managed to get around his teammate on the restart to briefly take the lead. That was ultimately short-lived, as van Gisbergen was able to sweep past before he had even a full lap at the point.
Preece spent the rest of the race on the same strategy as Buescher. However, his final pit stop was slow. That dropped him to a 13th-place finish.
“That last pit stop didn’t go the way we needed it to,” Preece said on pit road after the race. “Details are what it takes.
“Ultimately, we gotta to go to Richmond and … qualify well, get a bunch of stage points and win, or come dang close to it. That’s what it’s going to take.”
Team co-owner Brad Keselowski was also in the hunt for a good finish late. He had made his final pit stop with 15 laps to go and had a tire advantage over the entire field.
He cut his left rear tire with a few laps to go.
As a result, Keselowski had to stop in the final laps for fresh rubber. While the flat tire didn’t damage the car, Keselowski didn’t have enough time to recover, and he finished 32nd.
Despite the bad finish, Keselowski stays in his season-best 19th in points. Since he’s 153 points behind Buescher, he cannot make the playoffs unless he wins at either Richmond Raceway or Daytona International Speedway.
For Buescher, only Preece can catch him on points for the final playoff spot. Everyone else, including Kyle Busch, is more than 100 points back.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.