Chris Buescher was the driver knocked out of a NASCAR Cup Series playoff spot Sunday night as the Southern 500 produced a new winner in the regular-season finale.
Buescher and RFK Racing entered the weekend at Darlington Raceway sitting 21 points to the good. At the night’s end, a Chase Briscoe victory pushed Buescher, who finished sixth, below a transfer spot by six points.
“It’s frustration and disbelief all together,” Buescher said.
The No. 17 team controlled their destiny throughout the night. Buescher was mindful of his advantage over Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain, the two drivers sitting outside the playoff grid who could mathematically advance on points.
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Wallace outscored both Buescher and Chastain through the first two stages. In the final stage, Buescher began to lose even more ground as he ran behind Wallace on the racetrack. The gap, as they ran, closed to less than three points before the complexion of the race changed with a rash of cautions that started with 46 laps to go.
One of those cautions involved Buescher. A tight battle with Todd Gilliland off Turn 2 left Buescher squeezed into the wall and then into the right side of Gilliland’s car, spinning the Front Row Motorsports driver.
A crash with 24 laps to go collected Wallace and Ty Gibbs, the latter fighting for a playoff spot on points. By this time, however, Briscoe was in the race lead, having made a three-wide move on a restart with 26 laps to go to take second position before overtaking the leader in the next corner.
Buescher continued to surge forward with fresher tires after his incident but it was for naught, with Briscoe going to victory lane.
“I felt like we did, for the most part, what we needed to do today,” Buescher said. “We got back in contention there at the end and got a decent finish out of it, just didn’t quite get it done again and now we’re on the outside looking in. Unfortunately, it’s just the system we’re all playing in.
“We had such a great year. Everyone at RFK has worked so hard. We’ve been so fast. We’ve outrun so many of these cars that are going to get to run for a championship, but that’s the system, and we didn’t work it right.”
The swing in fortune is the latest for Buescher and his team in a season that saw him come close to victory lane on multiple occasions in the regular season. It was Darlington in the spring where Buescher led inside the final 15 laps when contact with Tyler Reddick cut down a tire. A week later, he was the loser in the closest finish in Cup Series history at Kansas Speedway with Kyle Larson.
Before the points were reset for the postseason, Buescher sat 11th on the strength of 12 top-10 finishes. And he has the fourth-best average finish in the Cup Series (13.7).
“It’s such a shame, but another great run,” Buescher said. “It’s another great finish here at Darlington, but just not enough with another new winner and, yeah, just crazy. I’m definitely going to think back on different times throughout the year, and we’ll figure out how to do better next time.”