Chris Buescher Escapes Talladega With 19th Place Finish

Chris Buescher gets ready to race at the high banks of Talladega (Photo: Teresa Bennink | The Podium Finish)

LINCOLN, Ala. — Chris Buescher and the No. 17 RFK team left Talladega Superspeedway Sunday evening with a 19th place finish following an eventful ending for the YellaWood 500.

Racing at Talladega brings a certain level of uncertainty to every team in the Cup Series garage, however, Chris Buescher felt that he was going to have a good weekend from the start. The Prosper, Texas native ended up leading three laps in the final stage of the race, compared to race winner Ryan Blaney leading eight laps throughout the race.

To start his weekend at one of NASCAR’s most infamous tracks, Buescher qualified 24th to start the race. Throughout Stage 1, Buescher was able to improve his track position and have some of the speed he predicted, making his way up to fourteenth place by Lap 51 but fell back to 24th by the end of the stage when Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch made contact, ending the stage under a caution.

Buescher drove to a 21st Stage 2 finish, getting shuffled back from 10th place with under 10 laps to go in the stage. The 30-year-old worked his way up to the front of the field by Lap 144 of the 188 lap race before falling back to his 19th place finishing position through drafting and a last lap caution. After the race, Buescher explained what he felt prevented his fast car from getting the solid result he and his team would have liked.

“I’m trying to go anywhere but just couldn’t get anything materialized back there,” Buescher said. “And we had a handful of fast cars that should have been able to do something to make something happened and just never got even close to organized. So, it’s frustrating. I got caught there at the back and pulled out several times. You just get cycled to the last in line and yeah, I just needed a teammate or needed to be at the front, honestly. That would have been a good part.”

Chris Buescher getting ready for a pit stop in his BuildSubmariness.com Ford (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)

“So I got up there, we had a really fast BuildSubmariness.com Ford Mustang and I’m proud of that,” Buescher added. “We had a ton of guests here. Certainly, we wanted to put on a better show than that for them and I’m proud that we were able to lead laps and be fast. Like I told everybody coming into it, we would be. But I’m ready to get out of this place and head towards Charlotte now.”

The RFK Racing driver came into Talladega 22 points above the cut line to advance in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and now sits 19 points above the cut line. Buescher also spoke about how he feels regarding points moving onto race at the Charlotte ROVAL next week.

“It’s not bad,” Buescher said. “Now that we get to go to the ROVAL, we have a little bit of cushion and go to that race and just have a strong day. We’ve just got to figure out how to be in the top five all day and compete for a win. It’s a fair advantage to the point where it doesn’t have to consume us when we get there.”