That #17 RFK Ford revved up a big surprise this Sunday. After all, if we’re being honest, it’s unlikely that anybody picked a 24th-place qualifier to play spoiler in the second race of the post-season. But Steve Letarte isn’t just anybody. With almost two decades of experience inside the garages of Hendrick Motorsports, and another inside the broadcast booth of NBC, the man rarely puts out an uninformed opinion. 

These days, Letarte plays quite a few roles off the track. One of them being that of a prediction guru alongside his ‘Dirty Mo Dough’ podcast partners. Those who follow Letarte’s weekly address would know how high the former Hendrick crew chief was on Chris Buescher, heading to Watkins Glen. And when the chequered waved, the latter made sure the former went home a very happy man, albeit at the expense of his former race team.

Steve Letarte’s crystal ball predicts Chris Buescher’s win

Indeed, Buescher’s win at The Glen was iconic for everyone involved. For starters, the +2800 underdog (as per DraftKings) broke a 38-week winless streak with his victory. If that’s not all, it was the first time in 10 years that RFK Racing won on a road course race since Carl Edwards won their last in Sonoma. And to top it all off, the last time Roush/RFK had multiple drivers win races in the same season was back in 2013. But for Hendrick Motorsports, Buescher’s win ended their five-year streak of dominating Victory Lane at Watkins Glen.

In the last 6 races held at the 2.54-mile road course, only one non-Hendrick driver has managed to take their car to Victory Lane. For that fact, Mr. H’s race team has won the most iterations of the Watkins Glen Cup race with 11 trophies to show for that accolade. Regardless, days before the 2024 Go Bowling at The Glen, Jeff Gordon & Dale Jr’s former crew chief, Steve Letarte had Buescher as “an absolute hammer top-10 bet” for an upset.

Letarte was all praise for the #17 driver’s road course prowess, as he said, “I’m taking him for the win. That’s my opinion on Buescher’s numbers at the road courses. He is Mr. Always there. Just always there…” Now, most fans know that predicting a winner in a field of 36+ drivers, especially days before the race, is nigh impossible. To pinpoint a Dark Horse playing spoiler at the second race in the postseason is even more uncanny. But Letarte’s pod partner, ‘The Professor’, made it clear why the cast of Dirty Mo Dough had Buescher so heavily touted.

In his words, Buescher has “15 Next-Gen starts on Road Courses. Only two worse than the 11th.” And if you’re anything like Letarte, that would indeed be your “master lock.” Meanwhile, Kyle Larson (+600 before the race) was the only Hendrick Motorsports driver who even came close to making the top-10 at Watkins Glen. The #5 car finished 12th followed by Alex Bowman and Chase Eliott’s Chevys in 18th and 19th. Their fourth teammate, William Byron, ended his race two laps early after getting tangled in a scary-looking wreck with Buescher’s teammate/employer Brad Keselowski.

When Buescher celebrated his first career road course win in the Cup Series, it was clear from his thoughts in Victory Lane that the win was no fluke for the #17 team.

Is another spoiler win incoming in the next 8 races?

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In an interview with NY-based Sports Director Andy Malnoske, Buescher spoke of his love for road racing. He elaborated, “It is not my background, I didn’t grow up doing this, I love it. And we’re really good at it. Our team brings really fast race cars, had good teachers through the years, and picked up on well…would come to these things and consistently be in the hunt to win but hadn’t quite pulled it off…”

“To do that here today was big,” beamed the Prosper, Texas native. Although a little too late, Buescher’s win over a certified road racing veteran in Shane van Gisbergen speaks volumes of his incredible talent. It was only ironic that a Hendrick driver ruined his chances of making the Playoffs back in May when Kyle Larson beat Buescher to the line at Kansas by the finest margin in NASCAR history—0.001 seconds.

Hence, the 31-year-old seems hell-bent on playing the spoiler at least a few more times this postseason. “We’re going to play spoiler as much as we can, in the next seven or eight weeks coming up as well. It’s big for us to get a win on the year, It’s been over a year without a win,” reflected Buescher in a post-race interview at Watkins Glen. He went right up to the Round of 8 last season. So losing that standing this time around would not feel nice at all. That said, only one 2024 Playoff contender finished inside the top 10 on Sunday. Surely, Steve Letarte knew something beforehand that none of us did? If not, does he have a crystal ball?

Jokes aside, do you think Chris Buescher can win another race in the next eight weeks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.