By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
For the second year in a row, Chris Buescher made major noise at Watkins Glen International, a critical step to near the end of the regular season.
Unfortuantely for the RFK Racing driver, it didn’t end in Victory Lane this time.
With 16 laps to go, Buescher’s teammate and boss Brad Keselowski pitted from the lead, handing it to road course ace Shane van Gisbergen. And following a pass by William Byron for second the next lap, there was one more pass to make for Buescher.
Back-to-back years, Buescher v. SVG at The Glen?
That sounded good for promotors, however, did not play out this time.
Buescher was only 2.4 second behind SVG when he grabbed second spot. By the time they hit 9 laps to go, the gap has more than doubled. And by the checkered flag, Buescher had finished 12 seconds behind the New Zealander and forfeited second place to Christopher Bell on the last lap.
“The speed we had in this BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang was good out here,” Buescher said. “I am really proud of everybody. It was great execution all day. We were able to get a stage win there and still in the hunt [for the win] really.
“I had a couple more laps on my tires and I used the rears up really hard trying to get by a few cars there. At the end of the day it is a really solid run.”
Entering upstate New York as the bubble driver on the playoffs, Buescher earned some space Sunday by winning Stage 1 and finishing third. Teammate Ryan Preece managed 13th, expanding Buescher’s bubble gap from 23 points to 34 above the cutline.
“Last year, we didn’t race for stage points at all. I was able to get the No. 48 and win a stage,” he said.
“We are greedy. We want more. At the end of the day, the next two weeks just need to be solid weeks. We need to go there and bring fast Mustangs and we need to win. Everything takes care of itself with that. I keep spewing the same line because I certainly hate point racing.
“I know while it didn’t get us a bad result by any means today, you have to think it hinders your best opportunity to win. It’s the situation we’re in, we get it.”
Buescher has two more races, Richmond and Daytona, to salvage his playoff berth. The veteran has won at both tracks.