By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
FORT WORTH, Texas – Chris Buescher will no longer have to worry about the quest for his first top-10 at Texas Motor Speedway after finishing fifth in Sunday’s Würth 400.
Dirty air played a role in keeping Buescher from scoring an even higher result where he tried holding onto dear life in his No. 17 Fifth Third Ford Mustang Dark Horse. By the time the race was winding down, Buescher was focusing on the competitors he was racing against, namely Tyler Reddick.
In the end, the Prosper, Texas native came up a spot shy of besting the NASCAR Cup Series points leader, but in the grand scheme of things, he’s scored back-to-back top-five finishes.
The effort was enough for Buescher being proud of having his best outing at TMS in his 17th start at the 1.5-mile circuit.
“It was a lot of fun today. A good solid effort,” said Buescher. “I think it worked out pretty good for us. We’ve been on the flip side and it’s cost us, so it’s nice to be on that (positive) side out of it.
“We’ve had a lot of really good races here, with some rough luck and finishes. That’s big for us. We had a ton of folks at Fifth Third Bank here and proud to bring it home with a top-five on Fifth Third Day (May 3), no less. Great effort and to do it at our home track means a lot.
“It looked like we had an outside shot to win today, but we were in the hunt. It was definitely rewarding and it’s nice to finally get the result here.”
The outside shot of winning for Buescher stemmed after Corey Heim, who led 69 laps, crashed in Turn 4 in the closing stages of the race. Initially, Buescher wasn’t thrilled but it did allowed him an opportunity to compete against Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin for the win.
However, it was Elliott who scored his second win at Texas and the season as a whole. Luck would’ve had to favor Buescher for the golden opportunity.
“They got to racing hard off of (Turn) 2 there,” said Buescher. “I thought, ‘Man, if we can keep this momentum up and get through whatever was going to happen. We have a shot.’
“It was a good restart. We pushed (Hamlin) and got rolling. We got down to Turn 1 and fighting the dirty air and all the things we hate to talk about. Our mid-to-long run was our best at the day, but the fire-off needed a little help and it kind of showed up at the end.”
With several top contenders like Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs involved in separate wrecks throughout the 267-lap race, Buescher netted six spots in the standings. He’ll enter Watkins Glen, the site of his last Cup win in 2024, fifth in points and a lot of optimism.
In spite of a strong result in his home track, the talk about consistency being relevant again this season became a focal point after the race.
Buescher explained while it’s nice to rack up top-five finishes, hoisting a race win trophy alludes him. The problem isn’t about making the Chase in 15 races time either, but being in the spot Elliott was after being the first one taking the checkered flag.
“It doesn’t change the fact that we’re not holding up a trophy right now. That’s what you want to do and you hate to lose,” Buescher explained. “While this is progress and put us in really good spots, that’s great.
“I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, but it’s going to take a little bit more to get to a point where you burn it down the frontstretch and then you’re happy with that kind of top-five.
“They matter and the points is always going to matter,” Buescher continued. “Consistency has been a strength of ours throughout my career and now it plays in our favor on the Chase side of things. It started in January and I told people, ‘Making the Chase is not going to be a problem for us. We will make the Chase.’
“I had no doubt about that, but it’s how are we going to set ourselves up to be a contender to race for a championship.”
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