Standing by his No. 60 Ford Mustang post-race, Chris Buescher was visibly upset and reasonably so. Scott Graves had made the perfect call to get Buescher out front, but just a hiccup on the last restart prevented Buescher from visiting victory lane. Instead, he crossed the line in 11th.
“Just ran out of fuel,” Buescher stated. “Lost fuel pick-up. It’s unfortunate. I’m mad. It just sucks. We were so good.”
Throughout the Food City 300, Buescher had been strong, running just outside of the top-five and headed towards a good solid points day as the series’ points leader. Though when the caution came out with 108 laps to go, Graves made a crucial decision – he left Buescher on track while the rest of the leaders headed down pit road.
It looked to be the right decision, as Buescher was able to drive away from the field on the restart and was leading when the caution flew with five laps to go.
“We knew we were good all day, it was just a matter of track position,” he said. “We got it on pit strategy and showed that we could outrun everybody, showed it every time.”
On the restart, he got the jump on Busch, but off the corner, the car stuttered a bit, starving for fuel and Buescher fell from first to 11th. As a result, his points gap to Dillon shrunk down to 19 points heading into the last two months of the season.
Despite coming out on the sour end of things, the Roush Fenway Racing driver stated that he wouldn’t have done anything different despite the outcome.
“We’re not here to lay over and finish eighth – we’re here to win races,” he stated. “We showed that we had a quick Mustang. I’m mad, pissed off.”
