Chris Buescher Savors His Season’s First Win as He Cuts Short SVG’s Road Course Dominance

Watkins Glen, for the first time in its history, had the privilege of hosting a playoff race. The way the race unfolded was proof enough of why it deserves that spot. In the race, Chris Buescher managed to continue his road course consistency. The #17 has managed to finish in the top 10 in eight of his last nine road course races. What shows his prowess is that out of those 9 races, he only had a top-10 start in one race.

In the most recent one, he started from P24 and climbed to victory. This was no easy task for Buescher, as standing in his way was none other than the road course king, Shane van Gisbergen. SVG, in his debut Xfinity season, has managed to have three wins, and all of them have come on road courses. Even his Cup debut last year was at the Chicago street race, and he emerged victorious there as well. The most thrilling part of the race was their battle in the end. Buescher, post-race, opened up about the events that unfolded on track as he eyed his first win of the season.

Chris Buescher bags his first win of 2024 in style

Chris Buescher had an unfortunate end to the regular season. He was certain to make the playoffs until the last Darlington race, when a new winner, Chase Briscoe, knocked him out. The #17 had long been eyeing this win, as he was hoping to continue his 2023 season-high, where he bagged three wins (the most in a single season by him). However, it just did not come. On numerous occasions, he came close to it, like at Phoenix Raceway or Kansas Raceway, where he had to be satisfied with a P2.

Finally clinching his first win of the season, Buescher was delighted as he talked about it in the post-race interview, “Truly special for everyone on the 17 team. RKF has worked so hard at road courses and we’ve been so close so many times. For us to play spoiler on what’s been a sour couple of weeks, but a fantastic year overall. Just finally to pull that win off was big for us.” The win, however, did not come before an intense bumper-to-bumper fight with SVG.

On the overtime restart, SVG took the lead with Buescher trying to catch him. However, everyone knows that it is not easy to catch the road course king. Yet Buescher gave it his all and caught up to him as they made contact at the bus stop. Buescher took the inside line, pushing SVG wide. Then, SVG tried to take back the lead but momentarily lost control of his car and had to face a defeat by 0.979 seconds.

Speaking about what unfolded on track, Buescher said, “I tried to Track them down in there and I went in to where it was by far the deepest I drove in all day and he was still digging. So I knew we had a shot at that point and seen him get that big slide went for the crossover and got by him there in the carousel was able to run from there. So a big win that we really had to fight for there in the closing laps.”

“The Glen” has not been kind to SVG. First in the Xfinity race, where he finished fifth after NASCAR prodigy Connor Zilisch took the checkered flag. The 18-year-old defeated van Gisbergen in his debut Xfinity race. The Kiwi was bummed out after the weekend did not go as he’d hoped.

Shane van Gisbergen on his Watkins run

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After a P3 start in qualifying, SVG was a favorite to win the race. However, a trio of cautions came as a roadblock. For all restarts, the Kiwi driver chose the inside line, hoping to take the lead from there. While the first two times it was unsuccessful, the third time he saw a window in a three-wide move on Turn 1. He nudged Buescher, pushing him out and bolting to take the lead. However, he could not maintain it.

Speaking about the moment he lost the lead, SVG said, “I knew Chris was really going to send it and push me if he could get there,” van Gisbergen said. “As I turned in, I got a little bit loose and clipped the inside wall.”  The #16, although disappointed, was delighted to be part of a thrilling finish. “I’m gutted. The WeatherTech Camaro was really good. The race was awesome with Ross (Chastain), Chris and the others at the end. I’m gutted that we couldn’t get it. I had a lot of fun, but I’m pretty angry with myself,” He added.

His disappointment is understandable, but he’s had a good NASCAR run so far. He’s already locked in the Xfinity Series playoffs and had a top-5 finish in his Cup Series season this year. Let’s hope to see more of such performances when next year he runs a full Cup Series season with Trackhouse Racing. How do you think he’ll fare in the Cup next year? Let us know in the comments below.