By David Morgan, Associate Editor
Two years removed from his last win at Michigan International Speedway, Chris Buescher was in the fight down to the very end in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400.
Had a couple of things fallen the right way, it could have been the No. 17 RFK Racing team celebrating in Victory Lane when the checkered flag flew, but instead the Prosper, Texas native would have to settle for a runner-up finish.
After a sixth-place start, Buescher climbed to the lead in the latter half of the first stage, leading 13 laps and taking the stage win, getting the day off to a grand start.
Stage 2 would be a tougher run for Buescher and the No. 17 team, falling back on the initial restart, with strategy eventually dropping him as far back as 22nd place before he was able climb up to 14th place, setting the stage for a strong run in the final stage.
As the laps ticked away, Buescher picked off driver after driver, methodically working his way forward with the leaders in sight as the finish neared.
With 30 laps to go, Buescher found himself in a battle with eventual race winner Denny Hamlin before eventually ceding the position to him. Following him forward, Buescher was in position to capitalize and surpass Ty Gibbs with three laps to go.
After William Byron ran out of fuel coming to the white flag, Buescher would have only Hamlin out of his windshield, but the 1.2-second gap to the leader was just too much to try and overcome in one lap and he would follow Hamlin around and score his best finish of the season.
Still, it was a bittersweet result for Buescher being so close to the win and unable to close the deal.
“That was such a fast Kroger/Heinz Ford Mustang. I really appreciate everybody on this team working so hard to put us in this situation and to have a chance to win,” said Buescher.
“I’m disappointed I didn’t get it done. It’s on me. I had a couple different decisions I would love to go back and make and ultimately should have had us ahead of the 11. We were faster on the day and I didn’t do a good enough job. We’ll certainly take the good with it.
“We certainly need a little bit of good luck or fortune on our side. This is a day where we kind of made our own. We were really fast and worked hard to be there and just didn’t have any bad luck, so that put us with a shot to win.
“After the last handful of weeks with having speed in the first stage and qualifying and not being able to get the race finish that was certainly big, but it’s frustrating to be that close and to know that we had a car that was capable of winning. I just needed to do a better job.”
Buescher’s runner-up finish highlighted a banner day for RFK Racing as a whole, with his teammate Ryan Preece and team owner Brad Keselowski finishing ninth and 10th, respectively, to give the organization a top-10 sweep.
While disappointed it wasn’t an RFK Ford in Victory Lane, Buescher noted he’ll gladly take the positives of a second-place run and parlay that into more of the same through the summer stretch of the season.
“It hurts right now, but certainly there’s a ton of positive out of today,” said Buescher. “Our car was so fast here from the time we unloaded off the truck yesterday. We’ve been fast at all these mile-and-a-halves and that’s a huge step for us.
“I’m certainly proud of that and excited for what we have to come, but there’s a little bit of a sting right now to be that close and miss out.”
With 11 races remaining in the regular season, Buescher currently holds a 20-point advantage over the cut-off line as the series heads south to Mexico City next Sunday at 3:00 pm ET on Amazon Prime.
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