Chris Buescher got a little help from the boss in NASCAR’s regular-season finale.
Buescher’s incredible summer continued Saturday night by winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.
In a two-lap overtime run, the 30-year-old Buescher put his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford past Kevin Harvick and notched his third win in the past five Cup Series races.
It was his first superspeedway win and fifth of his career in 283 starts.
The Prosper, Texas, native got strong pushes from RFK Racing part-owner/teammate Brad Keselowski to get to the checkers first.
“That’s as much Brad’s win as it was ours right there,” Buescher said. “That was the right help — aggressive. … Just so thankful to Brad for all those pushes at the right time.”
Following Keselowski were Aric Almirola, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano.
The big winner of the night was 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who pointed his way into the playoff’s 16-driver field with a 12th-place finish.
“That was the most stress but also the most locked in that I’ve ever been,” Wallace said. “Knowing that this pace is mostly out of your control, I just tried to focus on doing the things I could do. Missing that wreck was massive.”
Needing a win, Elliott came up short by finishing fourth, breaking his streak of seven consecutive postseason appearances.
“This season hasn’t been what I would want by any means,” said Elliott, who missed six races due to a snowboarding accident and one to suspension for wrecking Denny Hamlin at Charlotte. “There are certainly going to be some lessons taken from it, and I think we’ll be better for it.”
Stewart-Haas Racing snared the front-row honors Friday afternoon, with teammates Chase Briscoe and Almirola earning the top two spots in their Fords.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. ran 1-2 in their Toyotas in the closing laps of 35-lap Stage 1, but Truex’s No. 19 blasted past Hamlin’s No. 11 down the long backstretch of the 2.5-mile superspeedway for the win and the top bonus points.
During a full green-flag run during Stage 2’s 60-lap segment, pit stops began on Lap 81 of the 160-lap race with Almirola’s No. 10 Mustang at the point.
Daytona’s famed “Big One” occurred off Turn 4 when JGR’s Ty Gibbs lost control of his No. 54 Camry and clipped leader Ryan Blaney. His No. 12 Ford veered into the outside wall and created a giant melee along the frontstretch to force a red-flag condition at Lap 97.
Sixteen cars were part of the accident, and the top three drivers in the bottom lane — Stage 2 winner Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez — drove away unscathed as the wild scene unfolded behind them.
With multiple cars out of the race, Truex earned enough points to claim the regular-season championship — worth an extra 15 playoff points.
With five laps left, Ryan Preece’s No. 41 SHR Ford made contact with that of his teammate Briscoe’s, became airborne and barrel-rolled violently approximately 10 times before coming to rest in the infield near Turn 1.
–Field Level Media
