Chris Buescher was the driving force knocked out of a NASCAR Cup Sequence playoff spot Sunday night time because the Southern 500 produced a brand new winner within the regular-season finale.
Buescher and RFK Racing entered the weekend at Darlington Raceway sitting 21 factors to the great. On the night time’s finish, a Chase Briscoe victory pushed Buescher, who completed sixth, under a switch spot by six factors.
“It’s frustration and disbelief all collectively,” Buescher stated.
The No. 17 group managed their future all through the night time. Buescher was aware of his benefit over Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain, the 2 drivers sitting exterior the playoff grid who might mathematically advance on factors.
Wallace outscored each Buescher and Chastain via the primary two levels. Within the ultimate stage, Buescher started to lose much more floor as he ran behind Wallace on the racetrack. The hole, as they ran, closed to lower than three factors earlier than the complexion of the race modified with a rash of cautions that began with 46 laps to go.
A kind of cautions concerned Buescher. A good battle with Todd Gilliland off Flip 2 left Buescher squeezed into the wall after which into the correct aspect of Gilliland’s automobile, spinning the Entrance Row Motorsports driver.
A crash with 24 laps to go collected Wallace and Ty Gibbs, the latter combating for a playoff spot on factors. By this time, nevertheless, Briscoe was within the race lead, having made a three-wide transfer on a restart with 26 laps to go to take second place earlier than overtaking the chief within the subsequent nook.
Buescher continued to surge ahead with more energizing tires after his incident however it was for naught, with Briscoe going to victory lane.
“I felt like we did, for probably the most half, what we would have liked to do right now,” Buescher stated. “We obtained again in competition there on the finish and obtained an honest end out of it, simply didn’t fairly get it finished once more and now we’re on the surface trying in. Sadly, it’s simply the system we’re all taking part in in.
“We had such an awesome yr. Everybody at RFK has labored so arduous. We’ve been so quick. We’ve outrun so many of those vehicles which might be going to get to run for a championship, however that’s the system, and we didn’t work it proper.”
The swing in fortune is the newest for Buescher and his group in a season that noticed him come near victory lane on a number of events within the common season. It was Darlington within the spring the place Buescher led inside the ultimate 15 laps when contact with Tyler Reddick lower down a tire. Every week later, he was the loser within the closest end in Cup Sequence historical past at Kansas Speedway with Kyle Larson.
Earlier than the factors had been reset for the postseason, Buescher sat eleventh on the power of 12 top-10 finishes. And he has the fourth-best common end within the Cup Sequence (13.7).
“It’s such a disgrace, however one other nice run,” Buescher stated. “It’s one other nice end right here at Darlington, however simply not sufficient with one other new winner and, yeah, simply loopy. I’m undoubtedly going to assume again on completely different instances all year long, and we’ll determine tips on how to do higher subsequent time.”
