Chris Buescher during pre-race ceremonies for the Go Bowling at the Glen from Watkins Glen International. (Photo: Holden Barnes | The Podium Finish)
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — RFK Racing is not known for their road course program, but Chris Buescher and his No. 17 team are an outlier in that category.
Buescher, for the most part, runs inside the top 10 on any style of road course that the NASCAR Cup Series participates in, may that be the Chicago Street race or the hills of Sonoma.
However, there has been an added sense of pressure on the No. 17 group, something that they dealt with last year around this time in the season. Making the playoffs is that problem, but RFK as a whole has been capitalizing on this throughout the later part of the regular season.
At the beginning of the Go Bowling at the Glen on Sunday, Buescher was pretty quiet on the racetrack for the opening 45 laps of the show. Most eyes were glued to the battle up front between Ryan Blaney and Shane Van Gisbergen.
Even though Buescher stayed out at the end of Stage 1 to take valuable points for a chance at a playoff berth with two races remaining before the start of the playoffs, the No. 17 did not seem like it had the same fire that it had around a year ago.
On top of that, Buescher was battling his RFK teammate, Ryan Preece, for the final spot in the playoff grid. If there was not enough pressure already for the veteran driver, there definitely was when Preece started to gain ground through the twists and turns in upstate New York.
Chris Buescher weaves his car into the esses during the Go Bowling at the Glen from Watkins Glen International. (Photo: Holden Barnes | The Podium Finish)
Buescher was mired back in 10th through 12th in the running order for the first half of the race, so his crew behind the pit wall decided to run the final stage long, instead of cutting the final 45 laps in half to maintain a tire advantage.
With that curveball, the No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang was back in the game, filing in fourth in the running order when all of the green flag pit stops cycled through. By Lap 75 at the Glen, Buescher moved into second place with one goal in mind, to find a way around Van Gisbergen and lock into the playoffs.
Unfortunately for Buescher, luck was not on his side that afternoon. With his tires fading in the final laps of the show, and Van Gisbergen’s lead growing lap after lap, the No. 17 had to settle for a podium finish of third place while the No. 88 secured its fourth road course victory on the season.
With Preece staying close to the No. 17 all day but not being able to find a way to run down Van Gisbergen for the win, Buescher felt like there was no added pressure behind the wheel of his racecar.
“I mean, not extra pressure, but I think at the end of Stage 2, they (No. 60 team) got a couple points on us and I know he finished just behind us there in the end of Stage 1, so yeah, in my mind, we just kind of evened each other out there,” said the driver out of Prosper, Texas in his post-race comments.
“I’m aware, but no. It’s not that we’re just racing each other. We’re going into these races to race and figure out how to win and to put up the max points that we can on the board.”
Points are going to be key for the No. 17 if they want to beat out the other car in their RFK fleet. Buescher was very aware of that after the day they had at Watkins Glen.
Sitting at 34 points to the good of the playoff cutline with Richmond Raceway coming up this weekend, Buescher will look for more points throughout the stages of that race, but ultimately a victory if they are in the right place when the checkered flag waves on Saturday.
