WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — There isn‘t much Chris Buescher despises more than points racing. He purely wants to win.
But with less than two weeks remaining until the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs are set, Buescher found himself chasing points in Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. Scott Graves, crew chief of the No. 17 Ford, called an alternate strategy, putting Buescher in prime position to capitalize on points.
Passing Alex Bowman — another driver that needs coveted points — late in the opening stage propelled Buescher to his second stage victory of the season. Graves kept the No. 17 car out at the end of the stage, hoping to run deep in the second stage to make it to the end of the race, making two pit stops as opposed to the bulk of the field doing three stops. Buescher faded quickly to begin Stage 2, so when a caution flew on Lap 28, it was the opportunity for him to pit for fresh Goodyear tires.
Enough drivers opted not to flip Stage 2 to where Buescher didn‘t score any stage points. He remained on the track until Lap 54 before making his second and final pit stop.
Pitting at the edge of their fuel window, Buescher was able to cycle out of the pits in a heated battle with William Byron and Ryan Blaney. The No. 17 car passed them both and was in position to finish runner-up, a country mile behind Shane van Gisbergen. Christopher Bell made a late rally, passing Buescher on the final lap, dropping to third.
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“It‘s a tough decision, but unfortunately it‘s the box we‘re in, having to manage the two sides of it,” Graves told NASCAR.com. “A win would fix everything and, as fast as we were, who knows if we had just played the full-on race strategy, we might have had something for them. It‘s hard to say.
“We got a ton of points, won a stage, third-place finish — it‘s a lot of points. We gained back to the 48, cut that deficit close to half and put some points on [Ryan Preece]. We just have to keep digging. Get through these next few weeks and keep trying.”
The 44 points earned by Buescher ranked second for the race, trailing Blaney‘s 45. He remains on the playoff bubble with two races remaining in the regular season, sitting 34 points ahead of RFK Racing teammate Preece [gained 11 points at Watkins Glen]. With potential wild card events looming at Richmond Raceway and Daytona International Speedway, should there be a new winner from below the elimination line, the battle would be for the next position not held on points, currently held by Alex Bowman. With Bowman finishing 20th on Sunday, Buescher gained 14 points, just 26 points behind.
“At the end of the day, the next two weeks need to be solid weeks,” Buescher added. “We need to go there, bring fast Mustangs — and we need to win. I keep spewing the same line because I certainly hate points racing. While it didn‘t give us a bad result by any means today, you have to think it hinders your best opportunity to win. It‘s the situation we‘re in — we get it.”
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Preece faded to 13th at the checkered flag on older tires. Dropping further behind the playoff bubble was a bummer for the northeast native, but he also is focused on winning.
“You can definitely manage those expectations, but I [expletive] hate losing, so it’s hard to do that,” Preece said. I want to go to Richmond, and I want to [expletive] do everything it takes to win. A lot of passion with racing, so it’s nice to be in the position where I’m racing again.”
Buescher has visited Victory Lane at each of the final two race tracks to conclude the regular season, both coming in 2023.