With No Win, Buescher Misses Cup Playoffs Once More

Chris Buescher (17) missed the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Saturday night. (Scotte Sprinkle/Motorsports Hotspot photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – Chris Buescher fell just short of winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 Saturday at Daytona Int’l Speedway, and for the second year in a row is the first man out of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

On the last lap, Buescher was second in line on the inside pushing Justin Haley. Haley made a block down the backstretch and Cole Custer moved to the inside to try to pass Haley, bottling up Buescher.

The Texas native stayed behind Custer coming to the finish line, but no gap opened for him to try to make the pass, leaving the RFK Racing driver to watch his playoff hopes slip away.

Buescher finished seventh in the race and was 10th in the regular season standings, but with multiple winners outside the top 16 in the regular season points, it was not enough for him. He came up 33 points short of being able to chase a championship.

“Just [going to] be mad about it for a while,” Buescher said after the race. “[I’m] not trying to pout. I'm proud of this team. Our Fifth Third Mustang was so good. It handled great. It pushed so well. It was a great night.

“We certainly had a shot and had the speed again, so [I] want to be excited about that, and I am, but man, it's just another one of those we had the ability to win this race, had the speed, had the handling, and no champagne to celebrate.”

He almost didn’t make it to the last lap to have a shot at winning. With 13 laps to go, Joey Logano spun off turn four after blocking Erik Jones, and Buescher made slight contact with him as Logano spun across his nose.

“I thought we were in a really good spot when we got side by side with [Logano], " Buescher said. “When he got tagged or turned or whatever, we checked up and lost our momentum and lost all kinds of spots before the caution came out.

“After that, [we] got back going and tried to find our teammate [Ryan Preece] there, but we were both boxed in in a different lane and ultimately couldn’t find each other.”

The RFK team planned to work together if they could until the last lap, then race each other for the win to guarantee an RFK car a playoff spot. Buescher was pushing Preece at one point late in the race, but Preece made a move to the top to take the lead with six laps to go and left Buescher stuck down low.

They tried to link back up, but with three laps to go, Preece was shuffled to the middle line and fell to the tail end of the draft.

“I wanted to get our cars nose to tail,” Buescher said. “It’s really disappointing we couldn’t get lined up. [I] got boxed in and ultimately it didn’t work either of us. Frustrating end to a fantastic day.”

Even though he just missed the postseason again, there is still plenty of time for Buescher to find victory lane with 10 races left in the season.

The next race is the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener, the 76th Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. The race starts at 6 p.m. ET and will be live on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.