WATKINS GLEN, N. Y. — Chris Buescher had 11 laps.
He also had a 4.5-second lead over road course ace Shane van Gisbergen and a chance to play spoiler in the playoffs for the second time in three years.
Then the left-rear tire on Harrison Burton‘s No. 21 Ford self-immolated.
Cue the debris caution.
The RFK Racing driver’s chance to ride a large lead and “cruise across the line to a pretty easy victory” had gone kaput.
Buescher’s thoughts sitting inside his No. 17 Ford?
“Disgust,” he said. “That was pure disgust at that point.”
Disgusted, but “probably not very surprised,” Buescher also admitted.
He had passed Burton before the caution was issued and had seen the tire “carcass hanging on for dear life through turn 6. …
“I had a bad feeling at that point,” he said. “It’s not something that caught me off guard, but it was frustrating.”
Instead of cruising, Buescher was going to have to fight, survive and then duel one of the best in the road course business.
There were three restarts — and one in overtime — before it was all said and done.
Buescher kept the lead on the first two.
Then on the overtime attempt, van Gisbergen got to Buescher’s right-rear quarter panel as they neared turn 1. There was a glancing blow between the two cars.
It wasn’t a lot, just “a little bump to get him wide,” but it was enough to make van Gisbergen to drive like hell when he took the lead in the Esses.
“I knew I was going to get it back, so that’s why I was pushing so hard,” van Gisbergen said.
As he “tailed” the No. 16 car for the next lap, Buescher “knew that was going to be a very tough pass” to reclaim the lead from van Gisbergen.
As they took the white flag, Buescher realized he had “gained a little bit” on him. Going through the esses, he noted van Gisbergen “just hanging on to it really loose.”
Sitting atop the No. 17 pit box, crew chief Scott Graves didn’t think Buescher was going to be able to get back to van Gisbergen.
But then, as the two cars sped out of the Esses, Buescher’s spotter keyed on the radio.
“I heard the spotter say, ‘He’s gaining on him,’” Graves recalled. “I was like ‘Oh, OK. I didn’t know we were getting back to him.’”
As they closed on the Bus Stop, Buescher “had a feeling that something big was getting ready to happen.
“Sure enough … “
In a perfect world, Buescher said his…
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