NASCAR takeaways: Chris Buescher goes back-to-back with Michigan win

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BROOKLYN, Mich. — Chris Buescher had won two races in his first 278 career NASCAR Cup Series starts.

He now has won matched that total in the last nine days as he captured the rain-delayed Cup race Monday at the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway, a little more than a week after winning at the 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway.

Buescher outdueled Martin Truex Jr., who appeared to have a dominant car and led 47 of the 200 laps. But RFK Racing’s Buescher rallied and led 18 of the final 19 laps, only losing it for a moment to Truex as they battled side-by-side.

“It surprises you a little bit, but it was always our intention to go win every single weekend we show up,” Buescher said about his back-to-back wins. “It’s good that it’s at two drastically different racetracks as well.”

Takeaways from a Michigan race where Truex finished second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski (Buescher’s owner) and Kyle Larson.

Big RFK Triumph

In a weird twist, it was the second consecutive year that a driver swept the Michigan and Richmond races as Kevin Harvick did it last year.

But Buescher’s back-to-back, even though they were running well this season, was a little unexpected.

Consider:

-He is the first RFK Racing driver since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2017 to win multiple races in a season.

-He is the first RFK driver to win back-to-back races since Carl Edwards in 2010.

-His 52 laps led were more than RFK has had in the last 17 Michigan races combined.

“Our sport is tough,” Buescher said. “It’s not like other team sports or team-vs-team sports where it’s a 50-50 on your day, right? We are in a battle with a lot of other teams. You don’t get to win very often because it is so difficult to be that consistent and make everything fall into place at the right time.

“Certainly there’s a lot that goes into it. It’s not a shock so much as it’s just amazing to see the energy again.” 

Keselowski became a co-owner in the team after the 2021 season and the team went through a frustrating 2022 where neither driver made the playoffs. Buescher won the Bristol night race in September.

“I don’t know what more we could ask of him right now,” Keselowski said. “He’s out there winning races, executing in all aspects, not tearing equipment up, not getting in trouble in the media or any of this other stuff.

“I mean, what more do you ask for out of the guy?”

Truex Disappointed

Truex obviously was a little disappointed that he couldn’t get past Buescher for the win. Truex felt he had a better car, but Buescher was able to control the air and Truex just could not get by him at a track where it is tough to pass.

“I’m disappointed, but I don’t know what else I could have done,” Truex said. “I did everything I could to get there. And to get beside him was nearly impossible [with these cars] and it was going to be really difficult to complete that pass.

“I don’t know what else I could have done differently aside from running into him which I easily could have done, but I’m not going to do that.”

Truex increased his regular-season points lead to 57 points over Hamlin. The regular-season champion earns 15 playoff points — bonus points that can help drivers advance to the playoffs — while second place in the regular season earns 10.

“Big picture … we gained the most points today and that’s good for the regular season [title],” Truex said.

Rough Day For Hendrick 

Three Hendrick cars crashed out of the event, and it hurt the playoff chances for two of them with just three races remaining in the regular season.

Chase Elliott blew a tire during the opening 74 laps that were run Sunday and finished 36th while Alex Bowman hit the wall, completing just 134 of the 200 laps and finishing 33rd.

Bowman is now 44 points behind the current playoff cutoff and Elliott is 55. It is highly unlikely they could make up those spots in the final three regular-season races, meaning they will need to win at either Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Watkins Glen or Daytona.

“It’s the only option,” said Elliott, who had no warning his tire was going to let go.

Bowman got caught up in a chain reaction that ended up with him in the wall.

“Guys got in the fence in front of me and I’m guessing I just turned myself trying to get left a little bit, drove across somebody’s nose,” said Bowman, who missed three races and also had a 60-point penalty this year but was pleased with the car’s speed at Michigan. “It’s a bummer.

“It’s just part of restarting where we were and just trying to avoid the crash in front of me and crashed myself. 2023 has really sucked but I’ve got a couple more weeks to try to make it happen and get in the playoffs, but at least we’re running how we should.”

There will be at least one driver who makes the playoffs on points and possibly as many as four. Kevin Harvick is 180 points above the current cutoff and Brad Keselowski is 168 points ahead. They would be in unless there are three new winners from below the cutline.

Then there’s Bubba Wallace (+58), Ty Gibbs (+3), Michael McDowell (-3) and Daniel Suarez (-5) likely battling for the final two spots.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.

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