By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
A case of “The Lady in Black” déjà vu commenced between Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.
Two years ago, they were battling for the win until the two made contact in Turn 3 which dashed their hopes of winning after Buescher’s teammate Brad Keselowski got by to take the checkered flag.
The incident agitated the normally well-composed Buescher who confronted Reddick on pit road after the race knowing the win would’ve put him in the 2024 Playoffs, in which he ended up missing the 16-driver cut.
Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick tangled the last time we were at Darlington. 👀
Reddick's racing for a regular season championship, while Buescher is fighting to lock in his playoff spot. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/5lUemSi1bi
— NASCAR on USA (@NASCARonUSA) August 27, 2024
Fast forward to Sunday, the two tangled once more in the same spot. Only this time, there’s no “win and your win” and the perspectives have changed.
During the cycle of green flag pit stops on Lap 241, Buescher was running second behind Keselowski, who gone by him for the lead, when contact from Reddick sent him into the Turn 3 wall, damaging the right side of his No. 17 Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
The wall contact didn’t bring the caution as Buescher got his car back going, but it proved to be costly as his shot of a possible win was over.
Over the radio, Reddick’s crew chief Billy Scott told his driver the No. 17 team held themselves accountable on the matter, but spotter Nick Payne didn’t mince words in his response.
“It’s the Cup Series. Nobody waves up here,” Payne responding to Scott.
No. 45 radio on that incident:
"Just FYI the No. 17 knows that was on them for a late call." – CC Billy Scott
"It's the Cup Series. nobody waves up here." – Spotter Nick Payne
— Davey Segal (@DaveyCenter) March 22, 2026
Damage concerns lurked in the mind of Reddick after the race, who didn’t love the fact he got into Buescher, a racer he has respect for when they battle each other on the track.
“We lived it in 2024 together, like he’s not wrong,” said Reddick. “On the racetrack me and him run each other very clean. It’s just like of all people that happens to, of course it had to be Christopher. So I just didn’t love that that moment occurred in the race.”
After making his final pit stops, Buescher was moving up the running order, but he was too far back to fight for the win.
Reddick on the other hand, he was able to chase down Keselowski and passed him for the win with 28 laps to go en route to his fourth win of the season in six races.
Buescher had to settle for ninth after a three-wide battle for fifth went awry. A hard charging Carson Hocevar caught Buescher and Ty Gibbs in Turn 4, attempted to pass both of them, but Hocevar got on the left door of Buescher that cost him momentum and dropped multiple spots.
The regression resulted in Buscher’s already frustrating final stage to end on a sour note, finishing ninth in the 293-lap race.
Not the result they’d hope for after leading 41 laps, Buescher was more than pleased of RFK Racing’s efforts this weekend at Darlington and described the incident with Reddick as a racing deal.
“It was a fun day,” said Buescher. “That was fantastic to come down here with this Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang Dark Horse and run that well from practice, qualifying, race, to make improvements. The pit crew was awesome yet again. To be leading laps there late.
“Obviously, it was a racing deal. That’s straight up all it is. We got caught by the guys that did come and take tires and made an aggressive move to try to get to pit road real fast and kind of jump it and it was a little bit of an aggressive move and it didn’t work out. We’re trying to win races here. That’s what we were after and just came up a little bit short today.”
This could've been bad!
Reddick gets into Buescher while the No. 17 was attempting to come to pit road. pic.twitter.com/U0VTkCQHS9
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 22, 2026
Regarding the flashbacks to two years ago, Buescher found it ironic that Reddick got into him again and elaborated about his situation that led to the incident with the impression that Reddick was coming to pit road.
Additionally, he’s at a point where discussing the matter isn’t worth his time as a result of seeing it as a racing ordeal.
“I don’t hold any fault for this one. That’s just part of it. We were being aggressive and trying to take our opportunity and roll down,” Buescher commented. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I can take a pretty good stab at it. They were coming on tires. The 6 (Keselowski) had just gotten by us and he probably was gonna go to the bottom and dive through there and pull a slider.
“That was probably what was on his mind and we kind of turned down last second to take that and it’s hard to check up that fast.
“I’m assuming that’s what happened. It was nothing intentionally and I know that from where I’m at without ever having to talk to him. We’re all good. It’s just racing, trying to jump those guys and just missed it a little bit.”
Reddick explained there’s so much he could see from the driver’s seat and isn’t sure if the FS1 broadcast showed any indications that Buescher was waving his hand.
“From my vantage point, I was offset to the right. I knew he had a bad corner off of two, and I made my mind up that I was going to make the slide job into three,” Reddick explained.
“When he darted to the left, when I was darting to the left, I mean, I just — you know, I just — we talked about it all week. Just having less grip. I hit the brake, but I was up his back bumper. I had no low to my car, and I just completely ran him over.”
Additional angles of the contact between the Nos. 17 and 45. https://t.co/BgqHCM82Wu pic.twitter.com/vCXEuVT56a
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 22, 2026
Scott said in the post-race conference that RFK’s pit strategy played a role into the contact and pit strategy the No. 45 team opted to elect based on the information they’ve gathered throughout the race.
“We had a lap that we did not want to come before in any case. Just not knowing where we would end up on the very long run,” said Scott, Reddick’s crew chief.
“Honestly, not having had a chance to find out the way the race played out for us and where we pitted on the green before kind of played into that.
“We knew what we had at those length runs, and we elected to kind of stick to our guns. Once the 6 decided to pit, I think the 17 (Buescher) was trying to pit first, and that’s where we got into the back of them with that late move to pit road,” Scott continued.
“Then once the 6 did, you either try to pit with them and hope you have a better cycle or try to outrace them, which we probably could have. But at the same time, we saw how it played out in stage one when we ran him back down after an unfortunate pit road error that we felt really confident we could get back with a lot of laps left and then kind of be in control where we could ride with better laps with less lap on tires.”
One way or another, Reddick was bummed out about the incident because it didn’t have to happen and felt he was going to pass Buescher had he tried staying on the track.
“If he didn’t wave, I get it, because he’s not trying to broadcast to me he’s going to pit because maybe I pit with him,” said Reddick.
With six races completed, Buescher leaves Darlington seventh in the regular season points standings, trailing Reddick by 137 points.
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