By AMANDA VINCENT
Chris Buescher claimed his third-career NASCAR Cup Series win, his first of the 2023 season, Sunday in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
“I don’t get too stirred up most of the time,” Buescher said. “I was sitting there, and we had a nice, easy lead going, there. I was taking care of it and, then, shifting and about the time, Scott came on the radio and said, ‘Let’s work it just like that. Keep it smooth.’ I don’t think he even got off the button and, caution. So I knew it was gonna take some work to get back going, but our Fastenal Mustang was so good firing off today, so good in practice. I didn’t get the job done in qualifying. I had to pass a bunch of cars today and have some great strategy and some great pit stops. Everybody at RFK Racing who has worked so hard to get us to this point. This is awesome. I knew that last restart was gonna be tough, but I knew we had the speed in this thing.”
After a lap-391 caution for Noah Gragson and Daniel Suarez, the only caution in the 400-lap race for an on-track incident, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch third to give all three active manufacturers representation in the top-three of the running order.
“We certainly fought hard on the long runs,” Busch said. “It was after about lap 50 that we really dropped off and fell off. But the first 50 laps, we could hang on and do okay. Really appreciate the No. 8 Chevy team, X World Wallet, Netspend, Chevrolet. We just had a really good day on pit road and just a solid effort. We needed something like this to be solid on the short tracks and to kind of get our momentum back heading in the right direction. Happy with what we’ve got right here.”
Buescher’s Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammate Brad Keselowski was the leader until giving up the position to pit under green on lap 285. A slow stop cost Keselowski several positions on the track.
Keselowski finished in the sixth position after leading a race-high 202 laps.
Martin Truex Jr., on a one green-flag stop strategy to the competition’s two green-flag stops in the final stage of the race, stayed out and led laps before Buescher passed him on newer tires. Buescher made his final stop from the lead on lap 339 and, again, passed Truex for the lead on lap 347.
Truex finished the race in the seventh position.
“It was tough; honestly, the whole day was tough,” Truex said. “This place is never easy, but I felt like, as loose as we were all day, that was a handful. It was so on edge. It was really, really difficult to drive and make two laps the same. We just really had to battle. Good job by the guys to do what they did to come up with that strategy. I was flipping out, because I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t hear James (Small, crew chief), again, on the radio. Just really a hard-fought battle of a day for our Bass Pro Shops Camry. I thought we were probably going to run fifth, there, without the caution. We were just so bad on the short runs today, for whatever reason. Just, luckily, only lost two spots, there, at the end. All-in-all, a decent day, but, man, it was tough.”
Tyler Reddick, who led laps early and continued to run near the front, fell out of contention with a commitment-line violation on his final green-flag stop. He finished 16th.
Reddick won the 70-lap opening stage after starting the race on the pole and leading every lap of the stage. His 23XI Racing teammate Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. was second at stage-end for a 23XI one-two after taking the position from team co-owner Hamlin on the last lap of the stage.
Keselowski won the 160-lap stage two that ended at lap 230 with Buescher in second. He cycled to lead after the second of two rounds of green-flag stops in the stage.
Buescher took second from Reddick late in the stage. The 23XI duo of Reddick and Wallace were third and fourth at the end of stage two.
Wallace dominated the stage before the second pit cycle after taking the lead from Reddick on a lap-79 restart. Wallace made his first green-flag stop from the lead on lap 122.
Michael McDowell, Truex and Suarez opted to pit only once under green during the second stage, and McDowell led several laps before finally pitting. Wallace already had retaken the lead by passing McDowell on the track.
Wallace, though, had a slow stop when he pitted from the lead, again, on lap 173.
Other top-10 finishers in Sunday’s race included Joey Logano and Ryan Preece rounding out the top-five, Aric Almirola in eighth, Austin Dillon in ninth and Kevin Harvick in 10th.
