Chris Buescher came close but just didn’t have enough, as he finished second to Daniel Suarez in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday (June 12).
But after the last few weeks Buescher has had, second ought to feel like a win.
The last time Buescher was in a racecar, he was upside down on the frontstretch of Charlotte Motor Speedway after a freak accident in the Coca-Cola 600 (coincidentally, Suarez was the one who sparked that crash). And if that wasn’t good enough to rattle him, Buescher tested positive for COVID-19 in the week following the race, sidelining him from competing at the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway, leading to Zane Smith’s first Cup start.
After being cleared to race at Sonoma, Buescher rebounded well. He qualified his No. 17 Ford Mustang in third place and did not fall out of the top five much throughout the course of the race. The 29-year-old led four laps en route to a second-place finish, but for a moment, it looked like he might win.
Following a restart with 23 laps to go, Buescher would not leave the rear bumper of Suarez. He stayed within half a second of Suarez for a majority of the run before finally falling off in the last couple of laps, finishing five seconds behind Suarez’s No. 99.
Despite picking up his best finish of the season, Buescher still wanted more.
“I’m just disappointed in myself — didn’t get the job done there,” Buescher told FOX Sports 1. “I apologize to these guys, because they put an awesome Fifth Third Bank Mustang under me. Heck of a return.”
“… Everybody back at RFK [Racing] is doing a great job. It hurts to be that close.”
Speaking of RFK Racing, the team had a great day as a whole, something the team has desperately needed this season. The team’s other driver (and part-owner), Brad Keselowski, managed to finish 10th — his first top-10 finish since the Daytona 500 back in February.
RFK Racing looks to ride the momentum into the…
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