Chris Buescher had a chance to win Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. He had a chance to end the night as one of the drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason field. But for the second consecutive year, Buescher dejectedly stood on pit road after the regular season finale on the outside looking in.
“We said in February it was going to be a must-win, and it turns out it was,” Buescher said. “Maybe we can skip over the months of those questions next year and just stick with must-win. So, yeah, ultimately, points didn’t matter; needed a win to get in.”
The RFK Racing driver was the first one below the provisional cutline of the playoff grid. Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman took the final two spots on points.
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Buescher crossed the finish line seventh after battling for the lead and the win in the final two laps. He was the second driver in line on the bottom with two laps to go, but on the bottom of a three-wide battle off Turn 4 as the field surged forward.
Justin Haley and Buescher led the bottom lane on the final lap. Haley, however, got a run off Buescher’s bumper and surged off Turn 2, opening a gap for Cole Custer to fill. Buescher followed Custer’s back bumper across the finish line with the field three-by-three behind winner Ryan Blaney.
“We’d have done something different. I don’t know what right now, but obviously, we’re not in victory lane,” Buescher said. “I’m really proud of everyone on this team. This Fifth Third Mustang was so fast tonight, handling was great, it pushed so well. Ultimately came up a little bit short.
“Scott [Graves, crew chief] said it best on the radio after the race: it doesn’t define our season. We’ve had a great year, it’s just that we haven’t gotten that last little bit of detail right. Now we’ve got 10 races to go win a few and go upset one of these rounds again.”
Buescher went winless through the 2024 regular season, missed the postseason, but then won at Watkins Glen. It was the second race of the first round, and Buescher was the first of three drivers who would play spoilers in postseason races. The hunger and determination are all the same to go do so again.
“That’s the plan, we’re still racing,” Buescher said. “There are lots of opportunities left. We’ve got a lot of good racetracks for us. So I’m excited to go put some good ones down and go put some trophies up on the shelf and try to do better on the next one.”