Chris Buescher is the real deal. The Roush-Fenway Keselowski driver scored his third win in the last five races in Saturday night’s regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
Buescher held off his boss Brad Keselowski on an overtime finish set up by a frightening crash late in the race that took out the class of the field. On lap 155 of the scheduled 160 Ryan Preece, who was running 15th at the time, was in the outside lane and was shoved by Erik Jones. Preece’s Ford was turned down clipping his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Chase Briscoe who started from pole and led a race high 67 laps to that point.
Both cars slid down into the infield grass and the Ford of Preece seemed to catch the edge of some pavement and was sent flipping and barrel rolling more than 10 times. Preece climbed out of the car under his own power, but medics placed him on a stretcher. Briscoe’s car sustained too much damage and he was forced out of the race.
The ensuing caution set up an overtime finish that ended with Buescher showing the world that he and his RFK team are peaking at the right time.
“That’s as much Brad’s win as ours right there,” Buescher said. “That was the right help, aggressive, sticking with us. I was waiting for him to do something there coming to the finish. I figured we’d be side by side. Looked like it stalled out a little behind there.
“Just so thankful for Brad for all those pushes at the right time. Found each other here and there throughout the race, lost each other, and got back on when it counted.”
Behind Keselowski, who won Stage 2, perhaps no two drivers were more disappointed than Aric Almirola and Chase Elliott. Both needed wins to make the Playoffs. Almirola started in second and Elliott who fought for the lead at points in the race but had to settle for 4th and will miss the Playoffs for the first time in his Cup career and only three years removed from his title in 2020.
“Yeah, it’s a bummer, for sure,” Elliott said. “Hate the season has worked out like it has.
“Looking forward to these next 10. Try to make a little noise on that side of things and just try to get ready and prepared for next year.”
While Elliott was disappointed Bubba Wallace was able to breathe a sigh of relief after finishing 12th. With no new winners, Wallace became the final driver to make it into the Playoffs without a win and on points.
“That was the most stressed but also the most locked in I’ve ever been,” Wallace said smiling. “Knowing that this place is mostly out of your control, I just tried to focus on doing the things that I could do. Missing that wreck was massive. Appreciate Freddy. He’s one of the best up on the roof. Gets us through that a lot. That’s what helps our resume here with the speedway stuff.
“Proud to be locked into the Playoffs. 23XI, third year in, getting both cars in the Playoffs. We’ve gone through a lot of trials and tribulations. So proud of the effort we put in.”
Martin Truex Jr. won the first Stage earning enough points to clinch the regular season title, a year after he failed to make the Playoffs.
“The trophy is really cool,” Truex said. “We’re focused on the championship again this year. That feels really good. Really awesome to get those bonus points, just really proud of my team, everybody on our team at JGR, all of our partners giving us the opportunity to be here, have a season like we had.”
“Hopefully we can keep it going.”
The race’s other accident, an infamous Daytona ‘big one’ multicar crash ended the race for six drivers, and the hopes for a Playoff upset win for three. Coming to the end of Stage 2 on lap 95 exiting Turn 4, and the front of the field Christopher Bell running behind Ty Gibbs tried to push Gibbs to the lead. The move backfired however, and Gibbs’ car was sent up and into the back of Ryan Blaney who was leading at the time; Blaney rocketed nose first into the outside wall setting off multicar melee that in all involved 12 cars.
“I felt like I was getting a great push,” Gibbs said. “I feel like all of our teammates were working really well together tonight. I may have got a push in a bad spot, but we were going for the stage win. I want to thank Christopher (Bell) for all of the pushes he gave me, I really do.”
In the immediate aftermath NASCAR was forced to throw the red flag for just under 10 minutes. When the dust settled 5 cars were scored with DNFs including that of Austin Cindric who, like Gibbs had been in contention for the win that would have given them a berth in the Playoffs.
Austin Dillon tried to make a few laps, but his Chevy had too much damage and he was forced to park it in the garage on lap 105, also ending his chance for a Playoff berth.
Joey Logano was fifth followed by Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch and William Byron. Kevin Harvick was ninth and will compete in the Playoffs to close out his final fulltime season.
The first race in the NASCAR Cup series Playoffs will be next Sunday with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Erik Jones is the defending winner.
Race Results
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.