Story By: BRANDON LEE / RFK RACING – LOUDON, NH – RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher excelled on rain tires powering his No. 17 Ford Mustang to a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s rain-soaked NASCAR Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The race was delayed for over two hours for persistent rainfall and thunderstorms after 217 laps. Once the skies had cleared and action resumed, Buescher restarted the race 11th and used the remaining caution-filled 82 laps to secure his fourth top-five finish of the season.
“There was no quit in this Fastenal group today,” said Buescher. “It was awesome to come home with a top five. We were really good in the rain when it was wet. We really fought for it when it was dry but we were good on wet tires.
“There at the end there was just really one good groove and that made restarts a battle,” added Buescher. “We were able to persevere through all that and bring this thing home with a handful of more tire marks on the door than when we went in under red initially, but a really good night for us.”
6 Recap
Buescher’s teammate and RFK co-owner Brad Keselowski started the race ninth but battled the majority of the race fighting a loose-handling race car and poor track position. He finished the first stage 16th and the second stage 25th.
Keselowski restarted the race 23rd and broke into the top-20, but a late spin with one lap to go relegated Keselowski and his No 6 BuildSubmarines.com Boston Red Sox themed Ford to a 28th-place finish.
17 Recap
Buescher started the race 15th and finished the first stage 18th. He finished the second stage 11th, where he was running when the race was halted for the inclement weather.
Following the 2-hour plus rain delay, the race restarted for the final 80-lap run to the finish with a myriad of chaos as NASCAR mandated wet tires for the restart. From there, six caution flags were displayed until the checkered flag as teams battled tire wear, damp conditions, and arriving darkness.
Buescher used the flurry of yellows to slowly inch his way forward, ultimately surviving the chaos to drive into the top five. He restarted on the second row in consecutive restarts to conclude the race, hanging on to the top five result, his best-career finish in Loudon. It marks Buescher’s eighth top-10 of the season and fourth top five for the Prosper, Texas native.
Up Next
The final race in June takes place next Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway with race coverage set for 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC, with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).