Fastenal Ford Skates through Last-Lap Incident to Earn Best Finish of 2023
LINCOLN, Ala. (April 23, 2023) – Talladega often times provides some of the best, but most unpredictable finishes. Chris Buescher was on the right end of a chaotic one Sunday afternoon as he snuck his way through a final-lap crash to finish third in the Fastenal Ford Mustang.
“It was a good finish for our Fastenal Mustang,” Buescher said after the race. “It was not as much fun on the day as I expected. Just really hard to make any moves – lanes just stalled out, handing didn’t seem to come into play. I don’t know if it was temperatures or what. Just not as much movement as we hoped… just thought we’d have more opportunities there.
“Everybody worked hard and got us up there in the end. We had enough fuel, and threw some good strategy in there. We were in the hunt for it. I wanted to see the lap play out. I felt like we had a good run up-top, but looking back I don’t think we had any help either. I don’t know. At the end of the day, it was a good finish. The race itself wasn’t as much fun as I was hoping for, for us.”
The No. 17 was 12th at the time of the race’s final restart in the second NASCAR overtime attempt. With momentum in the high line, Buescher worked around a multi-car incident that ultimately ended the race under yellow as he was scored third at the time.
That came after the race was initially halted with just five laps remaining when another incident sent the race to overtime. Buescher was 18th at the time and lined back up there for the first overtime attempt. Otherwise, he had a mostly uneventful day in the opening two stages that featured just two combined yellow flags.
Race action returns next Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway, where Buescher earned the pole last spring. Race coverage Sunday is set for 2 p.m. ET on FS1, with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
