By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chris Buescher wasn’t a playoff contender on Sunday, nor was he in the conversation for the win.
But when the checkered flag flew, the Texan still had plenty to smile about.
Buescher dodged a massive late-race pileup and surged over the final run of the day to tally a sixth-place finish for JTG Daugherty Racing at Kansas Speedway. The run tied his best result of 2017, matching a similar showing at Michigan International Speedway in Aug.
“That was an awesome day for our Scott brands Chevrolet,” Buescher said.
While his No. 37 Chevrolet was strong all weekend, for a time it didn’t appear that he would get the finish his team knew they were capable of. The 2016 playoff participant unloaded with speed, but started 20th after a subpar performance in qualifying.
While he didn’t have track position, Buescher battled on to keep himself on the lead lap and in contention in the middle of the pack. It was in that position where Buescher found himself when Erik Jones lost control of his No. 77 Toyota on Lap 199, setting off a massive crash that involved 14 cars.
Somehow, someway, Buescher found a way through it.
“Looking at the whole weekend, we unloaded with pretty good speed,” Buescher said. “I didn’t do as good of a job qualifying as I needed to and lost a little track position because of it. But, still ended up with a pretty decent pit stall.
“We were clean there all day. Made it through the big accident on the backstretch by a very small margin. I am going to say it was within inches, but you go back and look it was probably within several feet, but it felt close, it felt wild.”
From that moment on it was smooth sailing. Buescher surged into the top 10, keeping Dale Earnhardt Jr. at bay over the final run to score his fourth top 10 of 2017.
“Just proud of everybody back at JTG Daugherty racing,” Buescher said. “We have been working really hard the last several months to try and get it turned around. We have hit the summer months and we haven’t had the speed we wanted. So, this weekend was a big step in the right direction for us. It’s excited. It’s fun to come back and run well.”