What happened?
Chris Buescher held onto the lead after winning the last race off pit road to score his second career NASCAR Cup Series win Saturday (Sept. 17) at Bristol Motor Speedway. Chase Elliott, William Byron, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick were all eliminated from the playoffs. It is the first time Busch has been cut from the postseason in the first round.
Buescher became the fourth consecutive new winner and continues the trend of non-playoff drivers winning in the postseason. He was also the 19th different winner this year, which ties 2001 for most in the modern NASCAR era.
How did it happen?
With a little help from a solid pit stop, good track position, and, as always, some luck.
Early on, it had already appeared as though RFK Racing was well on the way of breaking its five-year winless streak on Saturday night, albeit not by way of Buescher.
Team co-owner and driver Brad Keselowski won stage one, which was his first stage victory of 2022, and he led 109 laps throughout the night before his right-front tire went down on lap 413. He relinquished the lead to Bell, who was the only Toyota that had not suffered some kind of mechanical issue thus far.
Until he did too with 64 laps to go.
Another snakebitten leader!#NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/hdbpKNq3xI
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 18, 2022
The tire failure of the No. 20 brought out the final caution of the night and had put Larson in command of the field. The No. 5 Chevrolet brought what was left of the lead lap onto pit road for the final time.
However, he did not lead them out. That honor instead went to Buescher, whose team had decided to change two tires rather than four for a shot at track position.
The call worked wonders, as with a solid restart, Buescher took the lead and led the final 61 laps to win his first race of 2022 and the first in five years for RFK Racing.
It’s Bristol, baby!!!!!!!!! 🗡️😁 pic.twitter.com/hKhmIeTjC6
— Christopher Buescher (@Chris_Buescher) September 18, 2022
Who stood out?
With all of the talk about playoff drivers and silly seasons making a buzz in the media centers of NASCAR, it’s sometimes easy to forget there are so many other non-playoff teams that are still out fighting for wins every week.
RFK Racing demanded that everyone remember it on Saturday.
Buecher’s victory was not only his first Cup win since August 2016, but it was also the first for…
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