Weather Plays Part In Chris Buescher’s Finish At New Hampshire
LOUDON, N.H. — The Magic Mile at New Hampshire Motor Speedway has not been the best track for Chris Buescher in his career.
And while the No. 17 Ford Mustang for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing (RFK) has not won on the 1.058-mile oval track, Buescher did earn his fourth Top 5 finish after a 2-hour and 14-minute red flag delay due to inclement weather on Sunday.
“It’s not a win. But I guess coming into it, if you said we could have run Top 10 today, we certainly wouldn’t consider that a win,” Buescher told NESN.com. “But that would have been a good day. For us to come here and come home with a Top 5, that’s definitely a really good day.
“We weren’t ever really in the hunt for the win, but that’s a good step. Even on the dry (track), we were heading toward the Top 10, so it’s a good step in the right direction for us.”
The 31-year-old started in the 15th position after NASCAR canceled qualifying on Saturday due to rain.
“Being wet we had a lot of forward drive. We were able to make that work really well,” Buescher said. “I was just trying to be smart about it. Had a couple of mishaps, but ultimately put ourselves in a good spot to be able to make up a lot of spots. The rain just worked really well for us today until a bad restart or two on the bottom that did not work. Would love to have those back so we could be better but a good day.”
Some of the drivers opted to get out of their racing suits during the delay, but Buescher decided to wait out the weather and hope the race would continue.
“I just went back to the hauler. Just stared at the radar and watched it come at us, watched it go away,” Buescher said. “Just a normal day. This race is typically fairly short. That is far from the case tonight.”
Buescher added he was happy NASCAR decided to finish the race, even though the cars went through three sets of wet tires.
“It takes a normal race and kinda throws a gimmick at it in a way that we just don’t do very often,” Buescher said. “When you’re this competitive and trying to turn, split hairs and you’re chasing one point here or there and trying to learn how to get wins for something like this.
“It can really shift the field dramatically quick. There’s two sides to it. I am glad that we finished the race and the fans that did stick it out got to see the end. But I also don’t feel like it’s a fantastic thing for me to do. I don’t absolutely love it by any means.”
With eight races left, Buescher is still looking for his first win. His next opportunity will come next Sunday when NASCAR makes its way to Nashville Superspeedway.