Chris Buescher Beats SVG in Last Lap Pass at Watkins Glen

It was an exciting race for the NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen, which featured a terrific overtime restart that featured a battle for the win between Chris Buescher and Shane van Gisbergen. SVG was in the hunt for his second career Cup Series victory, as he prepares for a full-time run in 2025 with Trackhouse. Buescher was looking to play spoiler after just barely missing out on the playoffs. 

Before overtime, Buescher had a comfortable 4-second lead until Harrison Burton blew a tire in the closing laps. While Buescher was able to clear the field on the restart, a multi-car pileup would cause another caution to come out. Then on the final overtime restart, Shane van Gisbergen lined up inside of the second row and was able to clear Buescher for the lead. However, it wasn’t over yet, as Buescher began to reel him back in.

SVG went wide in the inner loop, which caused him to clip the grass. Then Buescher was able to get to the inside of the New Zealander entering the carousel where the two made contact, but Buescher was the one to run away with the victory.

“I sure did like it being four seconds out front and cruising to victory, that sure seemed a lot easier,” Buescher said after the race. “A little bit wilder at the end to have caution after caution was certainly frustrating.”

“I knew when he got that spot on us on that last restart that it was going to be tricky to get back by him,” Buescher explained. “Wanted to make sure we stayed in the hunt and drove the thing hard and kept the pressure on him and made him realize that we were still there and it wasn’t going to be a cruise away. I think that was the ticket to make sure that you get other drivers looking up in their mirror instead of looking forward and it’s a good old-fashioned hard battle at the end.”

“There have been so many fantastic last one or two laps here at The Glen and I certainly feel like I’m going to go back and watch that one, and it’s going to feel like it’s going to add up with some of the old school Ambrose, Keselowski battles or a handful of others.”

SVG considered the contact from Buescher to be fair, and he was expecting it as well.

“I did, because I gave [a bump],” van Gisbergen said to NASCAR.com. “Just a little tap to get position on him. I knew there was a chance he would try to get me back. I was pushing really hard on the entries, and I had a little wobble into the Bus Stop and it put me in too early and just clipped the grass.”

“There’s a scale of it where it’s like that and then another scale where it’s like the Xfinity race yesterday which was just crap,” he added. “I think it can work well sometimes.”

Buescher snapped a 37-race winless streak, which dates back to the regular season finale last season at Daytona. It was a win much overdue, as he had a potential win thrown away at Darlington in the spring after contact with Tyler Reddick. Not to mention losing out on the win at Kansas, losing that race in the closest finish in Cup Series history (-0.001). Buescher said the finish was fair and wasn’t going to wreck him for the win. 

“I didn’t like losing the lead there, but I didn’t think it was dirty; it was very aggressive racing,” Buescher stated. “I’m not out here to flat out wreck somebody. He didn’t do anything to me that deserved something like that, but we were going to race hard for it and have a battle all the way to the finish.”

Nothing but respect was shown from the two drivers afterwards, as Shane van Gisbergen, and even his Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain, went to congratulate Buescher in victory lane. 

“I didn’t feel like there was anything that was dirty about it,” Buescher noted of his pass. “I didn’t expect him coming over to be mad about anything.

“On that note, I think that’s the one guy out here that’s bigger than me. So if there’s that moment where I feel like he is mad coming over, I better take note, right? Just on the flip side, I’m sure some others don’t like seeing me.”

The NASCAR Cup Series head next for a Saturday Night showdown in the Bristol Night Race, as four drivers are set to be eliminated from the playoffs after that race.