RICHMOND, Va. – For a while there, it looked like Chris Buescher might score his first NASCAR Cup Series win in six years.
As the laps wound down at Richmond Raceway on Sunday (Aug. 14), Buescher’s No. 17 Ford Mustang slowly entered the picture of potential race-winner amidst several manfacturer-friendly competitors: Kevin Harvick passed a dominant Joey Logano for the race lead and Buescher soon followed, sparking a riveting pursuit of the No. 4 from the RFK Racing machine.
Though it didn’t result in a win, with Buescher finishing third, it did result in the 2015 Xfinity Series champion’s second-best finish of the year and best effort on an oval.
“It was a heck of a run […] we’re really proud of our team, everyone back at RFK,” Buescher said on pit road after the race. “This has been a racetrack that I’ve wanted to fill with water or put dirt on or something for a long time. We came here in the spring and had a tremendous run, a top-10 run — not quite the finish we needed, but knew coming back that [I] was finally optimistic coming back to race [at Richmond].
“After practice, I don’t know if I would’ve stayed with that sentiment, but the crew did a really good job overnight, had a lot of speed in this Fastenal Ford. Put us in contention to win a race. Wasn’t quite able to get it, […] lapped traffic in the way, couldn’t pick and get by them. […] It was really fast there at the end, so even if everything went right it would’ve been a heck of a race.”
Prior to Sunday afternoon, Buescher had just two finishes inside the top 20 at Richmond across 12 starts, his best a 15th-place result back in the spring of 2022.
A few post-race words with @Chris_Buescher on his third-place effort at @RichmondRaceway. So close for the No. 17.#NASCAR #FederatedAutoParts400 pic.twitter.com/ea9EmZRHwa
— Adam Cheek (@adamncheek) August 14, 2022
Though lapped traffic both helped and eventually hurt the No. 17 in his pursuit of Harvick, Buescher was proud of the adjustments the team made after qualifying 18th the day prior.
“I think everything [worked],” Buescher said. “I would say that we threw the kitchen sink at this thing last night. Team did a really nice job to dial it in so we had something to race with.”
With varying pit strategies throughout the field during the race, Buescher rolled down pit road for his final stop earlier than Harvick, hoping it would close the gap between the two Fords.
“Definitely hoped that…
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