Chris Buescher lets his emotions out as Kyle Larson’s Darlington disaster wrecked his hopes for a ‘better’ finish

NASCAR Cup Series driver Chris Buescher was the second-best Ford at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, April 6. However, he fell short of scoring his second top-five of the season.

During a post-race interview, the RFK Racing icon detailed how exactly things went south for him. With two laps left of the 293-lap event, 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace spun out Hendrick Motorsports ace Kyle Larson.

It brought out the last caution of the race, following which the drivers buckled up for a two-lap dash till the checkered flag. Recalling the late-race caution during a post-race interview (via Speedway Digest), Buescher said,

“That untimely caution just got us and put us behind for the majority of it, so we clawed our way out of it with some good pit calls. The pit crew did a really nice job today and we got back in the hunt there by the end. We just needed a couple more laps and we probably would have been a little better than some of the cars, but it's hard to say. We just got a tough break with that one caution."

Nevertheless, Buescher was proud of his team. He thought they had done a great job of balancing his car on pit road.

“We had a really fast Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang. I'm really proud of everybody. We made some really good adjustments after practice and got it decent for qualifying and really good in the race,” Buescher added.

Chris Buescher is in his sixth season driving the No. 17 Ford Mustang Dark Horse full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series. He hasn’t won since September 2024 and currently sits 11th in the driver standings with 215 points to his name.

---

Chris Buescher on being NASCAR’s underdog

In the latest edition of Jeff Gluck’s “12 Questions” segment, Chris Buescher was asked how he feels being one of NASCAR’s most underrated drivers, even though he has six career victories under his belt.

Buescher said that he doesn’t mind being an underdog. On that note, the former Xfinity Series champion explained,

“I’ve been in that position most of my career. We’ve been more of an underdog for a long period of time. We’ve been in situations where we weren’t expected to do very well, and we’ve been able to do it. To some extent, we should be in the conversation a little bit more.”

So far, Chris Buescher has delivered five top-10s, besides his lone top-five finish at Phoenix Raceway in March. His next race is scheduled for April 13 at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he has a win (2022), three top-fives, and a pair of top-10s.

“We’ve been able to put results up on the board and acquire wins and be a rather large part of the resurgence here at RFK. I’m proud of that and proud of everybody here for helping me be part of that,” Buescher added.

Fans can watch Chris Buescher in action on Fox Sports 1 from 3 pm ET onwards. Radio updates will be available exclusively on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.