Buescher’s racing season has had its ups and downs, and he needs a win to make sure he gets into the playoffs. In the race on Sunday at Sonoma, he was in a great spot to win.
Driving the No. 17 Ford for RFK Racing, Buescher made his first pit stop early and stayed out to win Stage 2. He was leading the race, but he had to pit later in the final stage, and this meant he had to run longer on his tires than some other drivers.
Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson, who pitted later and had fresher tires, passed him in the last laps of the race. Buescher finished third, and Truex ran out of fuel on the final lap.
Buescher said, “It was really good strategy on the day and an awesome finish. I wasn’t quite able to hold the lead there and that bums me out. I was trying.”
Starting deep in the field, it was tough for him to win, but his crew did a fantastic job. They got him to the front, and he even won a stage. But in the end, he couldn’t hold on to win. He thinks maybe the difference was the tires or how hard he pushed at the beginning of the race.
Although Buescher hasn’t won on a road course in the Cup series, he’s been doing really well on them lately. He’s finished in the top 10 in 11 of his last 12 road course races, including a fourth, a second, and a third in his last three.
He’s still in the top 16 in points, but he’d feel much better about his chances in the playoffs if he had won. He said, “Proud of the day. If you would have told us at the beginning, we could run third at one stage, we would have taken that, so we should be happy, and we are. Just wanted a little bit more still.”
