CAMBRIDGE TWP. — It took two days, but all 200 laps were completed at Michigan International Speedway between Sunday and Monday with Chris Buescher taking the FireKeepers Casino 400.
It’s the second week in a row RFK Racing’s No. 17 Ford has won, giving Buescher four Cup Series wins all-time with the others coming at Pocono in 2016, Bristol last season and Richmond last week.
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“He’s at his potential,” said part-owner and teammate Brad Keselowski. “I don’t know what more we can ask of him right now. He’s out there winning races and executing on all aspects, not tearing equipment up, not getting in trouble in the media, what more do you ask for out of the guy?
“If there is any advice I’m going to give him, it’s don’t change anything. We’re really proud of him.”
It wasn’t an easy win for Buescher has he had fend off a pair of fast Toyotas in Martin Truex Jr., who won the first two stages, in the No. 19 and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11.
“When we went into the rain delay we felt the No. 19 car was going to be the car to beat,” Buescher said. “Truex is a very clean racer and I try to live by that same mindset ourselves so when we get in those situations we have that level of respect where we’re going to be able to race hard and race clean and get a win out of it, but say that we worked for it.”
Truex Jr., who earlier in the weekend resigned withe Joe Gibbs Racing, was strong all day and showed it toward the end of Stage 2 when, despite pitting, was able to erase a deficit and pass Daniel Suarez to take the stage after getting Stage 1 before the rain hit on Sunday.
“It was a rocket,” Truex Jr. said. “It’s just the leader with clean air is really hard to pass and didn’t quite have a enough. All in all a good day.”
After the dust settled at MIS, Truex Jr. remains in first in the driver standings, 57 points clear of Hamlin, jumped William Byron for second place after Byron was knocked out of the race on Sunday. Kyle Busch was also knocked out and dropped from fourth to ninth with Christopher Bell in fourth, Kevin Harvick fifth, Kyle Larson sixth, Ross Chastain seventh and Brad Keselowski in eighth.
Ryan Blaney dropped from eighth to 10th while Buescher remains in 11th place. Joey Logano drops from ninth to 12th while Tyler Reddick, who led when the race was postponed, dropped from 10th to 13th. Bubba Wallace helped his playoff picture, going from 15th up to 14th while Rickey Stenhouse Jr. dropped from 13th to 15th, but he’s safe with a victory in hand.
The final playoff spot with three races to go currently belongs to rookie Ty Gibbs, who is three points ahead of Michael McDowell, who dropped out of the top-16.
There are currently four drivers in the top-16 without victories (Harvick, Keselowski, Wallace and Gibbs).
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Buescher holds off Truex Jr. to win NASCAR FireKeepers Casino 400
