Prosper, Texas native Chris Buescher entered 2024 hot off of a breakthrough campaign where the RFK veteran notched three victories in the summer at Michigan, Richmond, and Daytona on his way to a trip to the Round of 8 where Buescher ultimately fell short of a title, ending 2023 with a seventh-place points ranking.
Chris Buescher’s season started with a whimper, bowing out of his third straight Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum after a poor qualifying effort and a constricted schedule forced him to miss the main event.
Speedweeks popped up soon after with solid results in qualifying and the first Bluegreen Vacation Duel where Buescher claimed a stage point for finishing 10th, dropping him from his 15th place qualifying effort to 19th.
Unlike previous years at Daytona, Buescher failed to flex his muscle, leading no laps before getting swept into a late-race crash. Buescher came home 18th in the 66th running of the Great American Race.
In Atlanta the following week, Buescher found his Build Submarines Ford Mustang in two separate incidents, though the tenacious Texan would not be denied, rebounding for an impressive top-10..
His luck ran out at Vegas in race #3 where Buescher lost a wheel while battling for a top-10 spot just 28 laps into the Pennzoil 400, pounding the outside wall and falling to 37th.
A trip to the desert brightened Buescher’s mood as the RFK racer methodically moved his way up the running order and took advantage of a brilliant pit call from crew chief Scott Graves to earn a runner-up result.
The Phoenix performance set Buescher and Graves off on a streak of four-straight top-10 finishes, coming at tracks of all kinds. The #17 team braved the tire storm at Bristol to wind up seventh before sailing to eighth and ninth at COTA and Richmond, respectively.
Mediocre finishes at Martinsville and Texas set the Fastenal team up for a bounce-back race at Talladega, but the RFK driver paced the field for just six laps, sliding his battered Ford Mustang across the line in 25th.
While Dover didn’t provide much relief from this skid, Kansas would be the race that Buescher’s season would come to be defined by in hindsight. Lining up on the outside of row six, Chris Buescher marched to the front rapidly, ending stage one with six points.
Stage two proceeded without a hitch as Graves’ adjustments began to pay off with his driver jamming his car in the middle of five-wide on the restart, splitting his four competitors on the front straight and successfully nosing ahead in turn 3.
After green-flag pit stops, Buescher’s Castrol Ford inherited the lead and held on to claim their first stage win of the 2024 season. Unfortunately, a nightmare pit stop prior to the final stage saw Buescher fall to the back of the field for the final restart.
Taking the next run in the back put Buescher in peril as Corey Lajoie spun out Jimmie Johnson right in front of the #17 car, though the seasoned veteran deftly avoided the champion’s wounded ride. He narrowly avoided another scare as Austin Cindric’s car was chucked back into traffic on the next restart.
Obstacles kept throwing themselves in Buescher’s path to victory when Joey Logano lost control of his Ford with 70 laps remaining. From there, the former Xfinity Series champion crawled his way back up the leaderboard as the laps waned down, reaching third before the final caution waved with seven laps to go.
Buescher’s Castrol crew logged an impressive pit stop, putting them on the outside for the final restart. When Kyle Larson split Denny Hamlin three-wide on the bottom, it allowed Buescher to surge ahead on the exit of turn 2, looking to scoot away to his first win of 2024.
The feisty Ford driver fended Larson’s challenge for over a lap, but on the backstretch for the final time, Buescher entered turn 3 shallow, which gave Kyle Larson just enough room to take the outside.
Larson’s Chevy inched further and further alongside Buescher’s Ford until they were neck-and-neck coming out of turn 4 when the two made contact, shooting Buescher down near the apron where #5 slapped #17 again before both drivers reached the finish line.
It looked like Buescher nabbed the victory at first and even second glance, but ultimately, hyper-focused photography confirmed that Larson would emerge victorious, setting a new record for the closest finish in NASCAR history at .001 (one one-thousandth-of-a-second.)
A win and a ticket to the Playoffs slipped away just like that, by a fraction of a second, mere inches.
Not to be discouraged, the #17 squad showed up with a lights-out Fifth/Third Bank Ford for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, claiming seventh place in both stages. As other contenders fell out, Buescher seized the opportunity and cruised into the top-5 with less than 50 laps left.
On the final restart, teammate and car owner Brad Keselowski made contact with the dominant driver of the day Tyler Reddick, providing another opportunity for Buescher. The 31-year-old wheelman took his car down to the pit wall to take the lead going into turn 1, and against all odds, it stuck.
Reddick would not relent, continuing to pester Buescher down the stretch before attempting a slide job into turn 3 with 10 laps to go. To say the least, the move did not go as Reddick planned, sandwiching Buescher into the fence and ruining both of their races with the checkered flag in sight.
The wreck sank Buescher and Reddick — the top-2 runners — to 30th and 32nd, respectively. While Keselowski capitalized on his teammate’s misfortune, Buescher sought out Reddick in the pits with the two needing to be separated, even though Reddick tried to profusely apologize.
Buescher explained his side of the story, accusing Reddick (a driver with a win) of racing too aggressively with a winless driver. Bad results make it harder for Buescher and his team to make the postseason, something he couldn’t afford like Reddick.
Instead of the momentum at intermediate tracks transitioning to the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Buescher watched as his car owner fought for the lead while his #17 team languished in 23rd by the time the humidity ended the race 151 laps short of the scheduled distance.
Gateway provided no help to the Fastenal team in their pursuit of a title, just in time for Sonoma where Buescher nearly snagged his second career victory back in 2022 when he ended the day second.
An alternate pit strategy from Scott Graves got the team another stage victory in stage two that led to a subsequent gamble that would cut out a pit stop. Opting to take it to the end on fuel after pitting with 40 laps to go, Buescher needed to manage his tires and fuel mileage on a freshly-repaved road course.
Martin Truex Jr. practically mirrored Buescher’s moves, stuffing the nose of his Bass Pro Shops Toyota in the wake of Buescher’s Build Submarines Ford as Kyle Larson’s Valvoline Chevy lurked behind them. Within a lap of catching them, Larson slithered by, leaving Buescher to come home with bronze on this occasion.
For the rest of the summer, the #17 team fell on hard times. Outside of back-to-back fifth-place runs at Loudon and Nashville — two of the wildest races of the year, Buescher and company failed to get back into the top-10 again until Michigan, keeping them in the Playoff bubble discussion as spots started to disappear.
Unfulfilled promise at Daytona after getting swept into another late-race pileup (again) put Buescher in a compromising position going into the regular-season finale at Darlington.
Returning to the scene of his early-season disappointment, Buescher had ground to make up to claim a spot in the postseason, but to make matters worse, the presence of another unique winner below the Playoff cutline would effectively eliminate the #17 team.
Despite a strong, gutsy effort where Buescher tangled with Todd Gilliland and garnered stage points, it wasn’t enough as Chase Briscoe scored the victory, leaving Buescher as the first driver outside the Playoffs.
In the Playoffs, Buescher made headlines for the wrong reasons in the Atlanta opener where he missed out on stage points and knocked himself out of the race when he broke traction out of turn 2 in the final stage, collecting Playoff drivers Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr.
Buescher responded in a big way in the following race at Watkins Glen. Kicking off the day deep in the field, Buescher rose from the 24th starting position to 8th by the halfway point in this event with cars on older tires ahead of him.
To ward off the challenges of Chevy drivers Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen, Buescher pitted just two laps after taking the lead, holding onto the advantage when he cycled back to the lead on lap 74.
Late cautions packed the field together as restarts produced more cautions. Surrounded by bowties, Buescher kept his cool, fighting off hungry rookie Carson Hocevar for a few trips into turn one until SVG entered the picture once again on the final restart.
Heading into turn 1, SVG gave Buescher’s Build Submarines Ford a tap, allowing his WeatherTech Chevy to squeeze by on the bottom and take the lead heading into turn 2.
Buescher pursued the Kiwi for the next lap and a half, pulling up to his back bumper heading into the Bus Stop where van Gisbergen made a critical error. The #16 car scuffed the wall entering the Bus Stop, throwing off his Camaro’s balance and gifting Buescher space to make the deciding move.
SVG attempted to defend but was caught out, giving Buescher the advantage through the Carousel. The Texan held off the three-time Supercars champion through the final few corners and cruised to his sixth career NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Even if it didn’t get Buescher into the postseason, taking a victory in epic fashion at one of the sport’s most difficult tracks to pass against the best driver in the field is rewarding no matter how you slice it.
For much of the remaining eight races, Buescher kept quiet, scoring just two more top-10s while finishing outside the top-20 just once.
Chris Buescher closed out 2024 with a ninth-place finish at Phoenix, capping off a season where he came home a respectable 17th in the final points standings after earning the 11th-most points during the year.
What Went Wrong
After harvesting all the data from this season, Buescher’s most glaring weakness became readily apparent: he simply did not earn enough stage points.
For the season, Buescher scored 107 stage points. Compare that to his winless contemporaries Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs, he was behind by 125 and 47, respectively.
Back-to-back heartbreaks at Kansas and Darlington crushed him and the team, and they couldn’t recover in the regular season to make the Playoffs after a litany of off-the-wall winners in the summer.
Even still, Buescher and Scott Graves only made the second round of qualifying 7 times across 36 races. Couple that with an average starting position of 18.5, and it hindered the team’s ability to earn those pivotal stage points that would’ve otherwise kept them in the mix heading into Darlington.
Strong finishes aren’t the only thing that matters in modern NASCAR, and Buescher caught the rough end of that this season.
Looking Ahead to 2025
Being reunited with sponsor Kroger gives Buescher and RFK Racing more money to play with and improve the team, but the addition of a third full-time entry with Ryan Preece could muddle those improvements.
If Buescher and Keselowski can help bring Preece along as the season progresses, I expect them to be strong by the time the postseason arrives, but the first order of business for the #17 team should be hammering out these qualifying woes.
Starting higher on the grid isn’t everything; on the other hand, unloading with speed is integral to winning the race on Sunday in many cases.
If 2003 is any indication, Buescher should be the favorite to win the championship next season because he lost out in the closest finish in NASCAR history to a car powered by General Motors while driving for Jack Roush.
But, that’s entirely too convoluted to follow us through 22 years of history.
Realistically, Buescher should win 2-3 races next season and reassert himself as a top driver in the series, making his return to the Round of 8. With Talladega in that round next season, that will present Buescher with his best opportunity to advance since his record at Martinsville isn’t exactly sterling.
Races Chris Could Win: spring Kansas, Sonoma, fall Talladega
(Top Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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