Chris Buescher gave it all he had but fell short of a Championship 4 spot. (Photo: Phil Cavali | The Podium Finish)
RIDGEWAY, Va. — The pursuit of NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy falls short of Chris Buescher’s grasp in 2023.
For the driver of the RFK Racing No. 17 Nexletol Ford Mustang, he will get to reflect on a career year after next Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.
Following the checkered flag at Martinsville Speedway, Buescher ranked in eighth position overall and not moving on to the final for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. A three-win season is nothing to sneeze at and Buescher knows this was a career defining year.
Coming in to 2023, Buescher’s best points finish was 16th and in a year of “bests”, Buescher will best that by a large number and look back on the year knowing that he and his team “met and even exceeded some of the preseason expectations.”
Prior to starting the race at Martinsville, Buescher knew that his team was in for a challenge.
“This hasn’t been statistically one of my best tracks, but neither was Richmond, or even Michigan,” said Buescher.
He knew it would just be about giving everything he and his team had.
“If I get out of the car and can’t feel like I can stand up, and the team has given their all, then I know we did everything we could and we’ll be happy with the results,” Buescher said.
Unfortunately for Buescher, some early struggles would set them deeper in the pack and forced strategy to be played at the end to get track position, as he said, “It was a fantastic job all around. We needed a little bit more obviously to win this thing and move on. We knew that was gonna be the case, but I’m extremely proud of our year all things considered.”
When Buescher was asked about having anything left, he said, “That was it. I was trying. We took two and got a lot of track position and we stayed with it so good for so long and just kind of got right down there to the end and we lost some left-rear grip and some drive in it. That made it tough to battle back.”
Win or lose for Buescher, he holds his head up and expresses a lot of pride in his team.
“I’m proud of the call and proud of everything we did. I’m proud of this pit crew. I’m proud of this team. I’m proud of getting this Nexletol Ford Mustang a top 10,” he said. “Jack (Roush) told us two weeks ago that we take all of this in and enjoy it.”
The Round of 8 saw the No. 17 machine finishing 11th, 21st and eighth respectively but Buescher’s qualifying efforts hurt the team in the fact they were unable to score any stage points in those three races.
Buescher and the No. 17 team will go into Phoenix not only looking for a win to close out the season, but to hold on to a statistic many drivers pride themselves in accomplishing — to complete all of the laps in a season. That is a tall task for any driver, but it shows the remarkable consistency by the Prosper, Texas native as he is one of only two drivers to have completed more than 99% of the laps so far in 2023.
Career Best Numbers
Presently, Buescher sits at 99.2% and Kevin Harvick has completed eight fewer laps than Buescher in 2023 and that computes to 99.1%.
Chris Buescher’s success has come at all tracks, even ones he didn’t always like (Photo:Steve Conley|TPF)
All of the numbers in 2023 give the No 17 team a lot to smile about and build on for next season, and Buescher said, “Statistically, we get to change our numbers here at Martinsville at least, and say we’re capable of doing this. Now we just have to prove it next time.”
For Buescher and his No. 17 team, their confidence will only get higher as they move to 2024. With one race to go, even with four other drivers fighting for the big trophy, there is still one checkered left to take and Buescher would love to go in to the offseason holding it.
No matter the outcome, Buescher knows 2023 has been a career year, and that his team can only get better from here.
