Chris Buescher maintained his postseason position in Sunday’s race at Richmond Raceway, with his 25th– place finish good enough to keep his hold on the provisional 14th spot in the NASCAR Playoffs.
Buescher began the day in his Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang from the 12th position, but his line failed to gain momentum on the initial restart and he was quickly shuffled back into the 25th spot, which he maintained until the competition caution at lap 30.
Crew chief Luke Lambert took the opportunity to combat the excessive tire wear at the Virginia short track, and brought Buescher down pit road for four fresh tires and adjustments to the handling of his Ford. As the day wore on, green-flag passing became more and more difficult for the entire field. Buescher was no exception, maintaining a steady track position to finish 26th in the first stage.
The second segment saw the first natural caution at Richmond since 2019, when a spinning car brought out the yellow just after Buescher hit pit road. Trapped a lap down, the team worked to formulate a strategy to get back on the lead lap. Unfortunately, the rest of the stage ran green and finished with Buescher scored 25th.
The third and final stage saw yet another long green flag run until a caution came out with just 20 laps to go. With only two other cars on his lap, Buescher played defense for the remainder of the race and finished in the 25th position.
The No. 17 team returns to action next week from Talladega Superspeedway. A 2 p.m. green flag will start the field for 500 miles at the Alabama track, with coverage on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM Channel 90.
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