It was a tale of two races for Chris Buescher Sunday. In order to pick up his third career win in the NASCAR Cup series Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, he had to dominate during long green flag runs and hold off the field on a restart with just 3 laps to go.
Turns out he was able to do both. And guarantee his team a spot in this year’s Playoffs.
Buescher led 86 laps on the day, taking the lead on lap 285 of 400 when teammate, and team owner Brad Keselowski, who up to that point was the class of the Roush-Fenway Keselowski Racing two car operation leading a race high 102 laps, had a bad green flag pitstop, and he never looked back.
“These guys over at RFK, the 17 team, gave me a great hot rod. It was so good,” said Buescher.
“Pretty awesome to pull it off. Proud of everybody. That was a long way from the back this morning. Heck of a race for us.”
It only took him that long to get up front considering the speed of the car since Buescher had to drive from the back of the field after qualifying all the way back in 26th.
“We’ve had this one circled since last fall. I was really hopeful this could be the one that would turn the page for us. Sure enough, right off the truck I thought it was,” he said.
“I hate that qualifying went the way it did. I was sitting there beating myself up trying to figure out what we were going to do there. Made it to Victory Lane here in Richmond,” he commented.
“What a day.”
The challenge on the final restart, which came after the races only natural caution caused by a Daniel Suarez spin, was holding back a hard-charging Denny Hamlin, who seemed willing to put another driver into the wall to win like he did last week in Pocono to Kyle Larson.
Hamlin didn’t get a great restart when the field saw the green flag with three laps to go, letting Buescher clear him, and then he shot up the track in Turn 1 with two to go.
“I drove in way too deep,” Hamlin admitted. “I was trying to get to the outside there. Really had a great run off of turn two on the restart and off of four again.”
“But, yeah, I was just so close to him there that I wanted to try to squirt a little extra gas to try to get to the outside. Just too much brake.”
“I just didn’t do a good job on the restart,” he summed it up.
Hamlin didn’t make the move many expected from him based off his Pocono performance. Those included Buescher’s crew chief Scott Graves, who admitted that he advised Buescher to be wary over the radio saying, “Don’t let the 11 do to you what he did to Larson!”
Hamlin kept himself in contention by making contrary strategy moves throughout the day, staying out on older tires and pitting late. That strategy put him in contention late, even if he wasn’t able to capitalize.
Hamlin’s big moment came in the closing laps when, while staying out on older tires, he was passed by cars running faster lap times on fresh rubber.
One of those was Larson, who made a little contact with Denny, pushing him up the racetrack before charging past. Despite the boos from the fans as he got out of his car when it was over, Hamlin was nonplussed.
“I think he was having a frustrating day. I understand that it’s all good,” Hamlin said.
Ultimately, he just offered his congratulations to Buescher and the RFK team. Hamlin is a team owner himself, despite driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. His 23XI drivers, Bubba Wallace who finished 12th and polesitter Tyler Reddick in 16th, had good races. The two ran one-two in the early going with Reddick winning Stage 1 and leading 81 laps; Wallace led 80 and finished second and fourth in the Stages.
“Man, I’m happy for Chris, RFK, those guys. I know they worked really hard to get to this point. I can appreciate the struggle that it is to get to this point. Congratulations to them,” Hamlin said.
Kyle Busch ended up third.
“That was a good race for us. I love coming to Richmond,” he said. “Wish we had little bit more there; we were inching up on them a little bit but I don’t know if we were going to get there. Third was about what we were going to get.”
Though he acknowledged that his team started off poorly, putting too much pressure on the tires, he was proud of their recovery.
“Just a great day, good pitstops, good adjustments to put ourselves in the top five and in the hunt in the last two thirds.”
As for the strength of RFK Racing, Kyle said he had “no idea where they came from.”
“I thought the Hendrick and Gibbs cars would be the cars to battle here, and all of a sudden there were the RFK cars,” he admitted.
Joey Logano recovered from a 23rd-place starting position. He benefited massively from the restart, which bunched up the field and put him in range of the front of the field after battling forward all day.
He was able to gain positions in the restart, too.
“I had a pretty good restart there at the end, I was able to roll and get a couple of rows” he said. “I could see the leaders, I got kind of excited, I was like, ‘we’re here!’ and then Denny smoked it off into [Turn] One and I got three wide in the middle.”
Despite an exciting ending, it was a disappointing race for the Team Penske driver.
“We had a car that was capable of winning if we came prepared,” he argued.
A fifth-place finish for Ryan Preece is important not just for him but for his entire team. He came into the race outside the top-25 in points but was able to put his short track background to use at Richmond.
His entire Stewart-Haas Racing team has struggled, too, with only Kevin Harvick in position to make the Playoffs on points.
“That was a really good day for the whole organization,” he said. “If we can consistently bring cars like that, and all of us keep holding ourselves accountable, we’ll get to where we want to be.”
Keselowski finished sixth, followed by Martin Truex, Jr.
Stewart Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick finished eighth and tenth respectively, with Austin Dillon coming home between them in ninth.
Truex was the only driver to upset Buescher’s laps-led count when he stayed out even longer than Hamlin on the last pit stops for tires. Buescher was able to pass Truex before the Joe Gibbs driver even pitted, but the call worked out for the second stop in the final stage, letting him enter pit road in the top ten.
Almirola had an especially strong performance but ended up back in the field with a commitment line violation during pitstops in the middle of Stage 2. He’d previously made his way up to eighth on track after starting 24th.
Tyler Reddick also had a commitment line violation that spoiled his run. He was running up front along with teammate Bubba Wallace in the beginning of the race.
The race featured three cautions, just one for cause, the Suarez spin off the bumper of Noah Gragson 8 laps from the end. The race resumed with just three laps to go.
Four races now remain to settle the 2023 Playoff field. Keselowski remains winless, but is currently 151 points above the Playoff cut line. The series moves north next week for Sunday’s Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Harvick is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – Cook Out 400
Richmond Raceway
Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, July 30, 2023
1. (26) Chris Buescher, Ford, 400.
2. (3) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400.
3. (2) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 400.
4. (23) Joey Logano, Ford, 400.
5. (11) Ryan Preece, Ford, 400.
6. (13) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 400.
7. (10) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 400.
8. (24) Aric Almirola, Ford, 400.
9. (17) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 400.
10. (8) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 400.
11. (20) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 400.
12. (5) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 400.
13. (4) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 400.
14. (25) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 400.
15. (7) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 400.
16. (1) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 400.
17. (9) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 400.
18. (15) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 400.
19. (14) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 400.
20. (29) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 399.
21. (6) William Byron, Chevrolet, 399.
22. (18) Michael McDowell, Ford, 399.
23. (27) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 399.
24. (19) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 399.
25. (16) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 399.
26. (30) Austin Cindric, Ford, 399.
27. (36) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 399.
28. (12) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 398.
29. (32) Ryan Newman, Ford, 398.
30. (28) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 398.
31. (22) Harrison Burton, Ford, 397.
32. (31) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 397.
33. (33) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 396.
34. (34) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 396.
35. (35) JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 396.
36. (21) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 395.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 98.783 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 2 Mins, 13 Secs. Margin of Victory: .549 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 3 for 21 laps.
Lead Changes: 18 among 8 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Reddick 1-78;B. Wallace 79-122;D. Hamlin 123-128;M. McDowell 129-137;B. Wallace 138-173;T. Reddick 174-175;D. Hamlin 176-180;M. Truex Jr. 181;B. Keselowski 182-233;T. Reddick 234;B. Keselowski 235-284;D. Hamlin 285-292;M. Truex Jr. 293-304;C. Buescher 305-339;R. Blaney 340-341;M. Truex Jr. 342-346;C. Buescher 347-392;D. Hamlin 393;C. Buescher 394-400.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Brad Keselowski 2 times for 102 laps; Chris Buescher 3 times for 88 laps; Tyler Reddick 3 times for 81 laps; Bubba Wallace 2 times for 80 laps; Denny Hamlin 4 times for 20 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 3 times for 18 laps; Michael McDowell 1 time for 9 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 2 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 45,23,11,9,4,41,24,10,6,54
Stage #2 Top Ten: 6,17,45,23,11,8,41,19,54,22
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