Buescher “really proud” after runner-up finish at Phoenix

The start of the 2024 NASCAR Cup season has been a difficult one for Buescher, who was one of the top performing drivers at the end of last season.

Entering Sunday’s race, he had just one top 10 finish and had wrecked out of last weekend’s race at Las Vegas, leaving him 23rd in the series standings.

On Sunday, Buescher was among the teams that elected to pit on lap 208 of 312 on what turned out to be the next-to-last caution of the race.

Buescher then had to work to save some fuel over the final 104 laps but was also able to make his way through the field. He moved into the runner-up position with 10 laps remaining, before Christopher Bell claimed the victory.

“That’s huge. We’ve been able to lead races at any point in all three races leading up to this. We didn’t quite get there today but certainly a great finish,” Buescher said. “Really proud of everybody.

“This is a good try. We had a rough go last week. This was good to get everybody back to prove that we’re in this together and we’re going to win one of these things as a team. That was almost a win today.”

Even if Buescher had been in a better fuel position – another group of cars that included Bell made their final stop on lap 218 – he wasn’t sure he had a car capable of running down Bell.

Bell led the final 41 laps as Toyotas combined to lead 298 of the 312 laps on Sunday. Bell led twice for 50 laps.

“I didn’t quite see (Bell) there at the end, so I know they were lights out,” Buescher said. “We have some work to do to get to that point. What thrills me is we were by no means perfect on balance so we have a lot of room to make this thing better, which is awesome.

“It tells me we can go compete for that (win). Really impressed with everybody today, we did a heck of a job, worked hard to get back up where we needed to be at the end.

“I was able to save just enough fuel to go 100-percent at the end. Got to second. Really proud with that.”