After being knocked out of the playoffs two weeks ago in Darlington, Chris Buescher earned a measure of redemption at Watkins Glen, putting the bump-and-run on Shane van Gisbergen on the final trip through the carousel to earn his first win of the 2024 season. Buescher led the way on a day dominated by spoilers, as the Round of 16 drivers took a backseat to other drivers not in the playoffs.
On the final restart in overtime, Shane van Gisbergen laid the bumper to Buescher in Turn 1 to send him off-line and take the top spot, and tried to pull away even as Buescher gave chase over the next lap leading to the white flag. But entering the bus stop for the final time, SVG clipped the Armco barrier, breaking his momentum and giving Buescher the chance to give a bump-and-run right back to the former V8 Supercars star and road course ace.
Go Bowling at The Glen unofficial results
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #16 - Shane van Gisbergen
- #77 - Carson Hocevar (R)
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #71 - Zane Smith (R)
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
- #34 - Michael McDowell
- #7 - Corey LaJoie
- #41 - Ryan Preece
- #2 - Austin Cindric
Depending on your perspective, Buescher had come within 0.001 seconds -- the margin he lost by in the closest finish in Cup Series history at Kansas in May -- or two surprise winners away from making the playoffs, as upset victories by both Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe in the final two weeks of the regular season bumped him below the cut line at the eleventh hour.
Thanks to that, Buescher will not have a chance to compete for the Cup championship like he did last year when he made it all the way to the Round of 8 in the playoffs. But presented with the opportunity to get a win, Buescher was not going to be denied -- not even by one of the best road racers in the entire world.
"I thought we lost it there on that last (restart) ... (The bus stop) was the spot that he was better than us -- and he missed it," Buescher said. "He missed it, so I tried to cross over, and went to cut and just hard racing there. Just such an awesome finish. To be that good for so much at the end of the race, all race, to get a win, it's good. We came here to be spoiler. We're going to do that.
"... We would've liked to have won a couple of weeks ago, but this is huge. This is such a big win for us. Everybody at RFK has worked so hard. To finally get a road course win, man, we've been so close so many times. To finally pull that off, it's fantastic."
Buescher's victory also serves as a seminal moment in the rebirth of RFK Racing, as Buescher joins teammate and boss Brad Keselowski in having won a race in 2024. That marks the first time more than one RFK driver has won a race in a season since 2013, when NASCAR Hall of Famer to-be Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle combined to give the company three wins on the season.
Playoff problems from start to finish
The 16 drivers currently in the NASCAR playoffs all took a backseat in the running order to drivers outside the playoffs, as only two playoff drivers -- Chase Briscoe in sixth and Austin Cindric in 10th -- left The Glen with top-10 finishes. That was largely because many playoff drivers had massive problems throughout the race, with many of them getting beat up from the drop of the green flag onward.
The trouble all started on Lap 1, when a spin by Kyle Busch at the exit of the bus stop resulted in a multi-car pileup that collected Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin and reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney, among others. And although Blaney did not suffer major cosmetic damage driving through the wreck, contact with another car resulted in the steering column on the No. 12 Ford breaking, leaving his car unable to steer and ending his day after not even completing a lap -- much to Blaney's chagrin, as he was unpleased with not being permitted the chance to fix his car as a result of NASCAR's damaged vehicle policy.
"Give us a chance to fix it. How are they gonna dictate if we're done or not? They have no idea of the damage," Blaney said of NASCAR officiating. "They said because I couldn't drive it back to the pit box we're done, but if you have four flats you get towed back to the pit box (even though) you can't drive it back. I don't know what's going on, why they wouldn't even give us a shot to work on it. But I don't agree with it."
That set the tone for the rest of the race, as the majority of the playoff field ended up getting spun, crashed, or in some sort of trouble throughout the day. Hamlin ended up wrecking twice and was fortunate to limp home to a 23rd-place finish, while the most spectacular issue for playoff drivers came on a late-race restart when contact between Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano led to William Byron launching up into the air and up on top of the left rear of Keselowski's car.
After all that, Hamlin (-6), Keselowski (-12), Martin Truex Jr. (-14) and Harrison Burton (-20) will enter the final race of the Round of 16 at Bristol below the cut line and in danger of being eliminated from championship contention. Truex in particular was extremely frustrated in post-race, as he felt like he got run over from behind trying to avoid one of the two crashes that occurred in the final 10 laps of regulation to set up overtime.
"I just don't really understand how guys can call themselves the best in the world when they just drive through everyone on restarts at the end of these races," the 2017 Cup champion told NBC Sports. "It's very frustrating, but it is what it is these days. I'm out of here."
In spite of all the issues for playoff drivers, nine drivers who have not yet advanced to the Round of 12 from Christopher Bell (+46) to William Byron (+25) possess an advantage of 25 points or greater above the cut line entering Bristol. Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs are currently tied for the final spot in the Round of 12, with both holding a six-point advantage on the cut line over Hamlin.
Spire pointing upward
As they have continued to become a team that hardly recognizes the single-car backmarker that they were when they first entered the Cup Series in 2019, Sunday became a banner day for Spire Motorsports as all three of their cars finished inside the top 10 for the first time in team history. At the tip of the arrow was leading Cup rookie Carson Hocevar, who worked his way into a position to potentially earn his first Cup win before settling for third, the best finish of his young and ascending career.
Hocevar was followed by fellow rookie Zane Smith, who finished fifth to earn his second career top five and his best finish since running second at Nashville in June. Veteran Corey LaJoie followed just behind his younger counterparts in eighth, giving him two top 10s and three top 15s in his last three starts as he looks for a new ride of his own in 2025.
Race results rundown
- As it was for race winner Chris Buescher, Sunday served as a consolation prize of sorts for Ross Chastain, as he led a race-high 51 laps from the pole on his way to a fourth-place finish. That ties Chastain's season-best finish from Las Vegas back in March, and it also marks his third top-five finish in his last seven starts.
- Michael McDowell had a contender's pace yet again on a road course, leading seven laps and running inside the top five late before having to settle for a seventh-place finish, his seventh top 10 of the year. With one more top 10, McDowell will tie his total in that category from a season ago.
- Ryan Preece's day looked like it may be a short one when he suffered nose damage in the opening-lap melee, but he and his race team persevered from that point onwards, earning points in Stage 2 and then finishing ninth for his third top-10 finish of the season. That exceeds Preece's top 10 total from a year ago, and he will be able to tie his career-high mark of four top 10s in 2021 with one more such finish. Finishing just behind Preece was Stewart-Haas teammate Noah Gragson in 11th, giving SHR three cars in the top 11 finishing positions.
- The great Juan Pablo Montoya made his return to NASCAR in a one-off appearance behind the wheel of a third 23XI Racing car, and he showed little signs of rust early as he drove up into the top 15 and then into the top 10. Late race mechanical problems, however, would cost Montoya a lead lap finish and relegate him to 32nd.
- One of the biggest close days of the day came on the first restart of the race, when A.J. Allmendinger's car suffered an axle failure that led to him getting sideways in front of the entire field in-between Turns 1 and 2. Despite qualifying sixth, Allmendinger's axle problem would end his day early and make him one of three drivers that failed to finish, joining Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Blaney.
Next Race
The Round of 16 comes to a close with one of the biggest spectacles in all of stock car racing, the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA.