By Seth Eggert, Associate Editor
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Despite doing everything he needed to do to stay above the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs cutline, Chris Buescher still missed stock car racing’s postseason.
The goal for Buescher entering the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway was to keep Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain behind him in points. Throughout most of the race the RFK Racing driver did just that as he hovered around the tail end of the top-10. Everything changed on the penultimate restart.
With 26 laps to go, Chase Briscoe swept by Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, and Chastain to take the lead. As Briscoe later held off Kyle Busch in the final laps to take the victory, Buescher was bumped out of the Playoffs despite a sixth-place finish. The runner-up in the closest finish in Cup Series history at Kansas Speedway earlier this year won the battle with Wallace and Chastain but lost the fight to remain in championship contention.
“We felt like we did 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. We just didn’t quite get it done again and we’re on the outside looking in. 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.”
Like Chastain and Wallace, Buescher now can play the role of Playoff spoiler, something that the Prosper, TX native did at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2022. However, the driver of the No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse has not thought about the final 10 races as of yet.
“(The final 10 races are) not on my mind yet,” Buescher admitted. “We had a lot of things figured out. That’s not it now. We’ll get back and digest this one a little bit. It’s such a shame, but another great run for our BuildSubmarines.com Mustang. 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.”
Next for Buescher is the Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In five starts on the current configuration of the 1.54-mile track he has two top-10 finishes. Buescher’s best finish on the hybrid track is a seventh-place in the 2022 Spring race.
The Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway is scheduled for Sunday, September 8, at 3:00 p.m. ET on USA Network. The race will also be broadcast on both the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.