CP MOTORSPORTS - LATE RACE PUSH PROPELS BUESCHER TO XFINITY WIN
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Never has a race's title sponsor been more fitting.
The Buckle Up 200 from Dover International Speedway featured a lot of contact especially between Roush-Fenway Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Darrell Wallace, Jr, who were racing for lead in the waning laps.
Following contact with Wallace, Buescher was able to conserve fuel and guide the No. 60 Roush Performance Parts Ford to Victory Lane for the second time in the 2015 Xfinity series season and extend his grip on the series points standings.
"I never know what to believe when it comes down to the end of these races," Buescher said. "I know Scott tells me we're just a couple short and then you never know how much we really need to save. We saved quite a bit there at the end. That whole run we were trying to be easy on the throttle and then towards the end of the run we started having to clutch it and let it coast at least half of the straightaway, almost three-quarters of it - which is really hard to do.
"I felt like we were going so slow and it's hard to convince yourself to do it. We made it until the end and had just enough left to do the burnout."
Wallace's left front tire went flat as a result of the contact and while he led 52 laps managed just a 17th place finish. Car owner Jack Roush doesn't believe the late-race contact was intentional and doesn't expect any problems in the future.
"In my 28 years of being in the business of racing with these NASCAR cars, that's the first time we've had an incident between two of our cars that's resulted in one of them not being able finish due to a flat tire," Roush said. "We have to sort that out. I know that nobody meant to have contact, Bubba didn't and certainly Chris didn't. We've got to work on the feelings and get everybody feeling good about being a team and teammates as we go forward."
Wallace, who started from the pole, wasn't thrilled to witness his teammate celebrate in Victory Lane.
I was saving fuel there, and Chris (Buescher) just ran over me and he ends up winning," Wallace explained. "It should be interesting Monday morning. We just got run over. It sucks that it was my teammate. I thought he got help from the No. 7 but I just saw the replay there. I was saving fuel. I didn’t think I was holding him tight and the next thing you know we are almost in the fence.
"The crappy part about it is we had a really strong Ford EcoBoost Mustang, and we couldn’t get off pit road to save us and we got caught in dirty air and then we were in fuel saving mode. I thought we were doing okay until that little incident.
"I would say I am happy Roush won, but I am not."
Differing pit strategies meant Matt Kenseth would finish nearly 16 seconds behind Buescher in second-place. Kenseth, driving the No. 20 Reser's Toyota, fell back early due to an unscheduled pit stop on lap 31 and was able to rebound to lead 51 laps.
Kenseth waited for Buescher to run out of fuel, but it never happened.
"We had a great race car and I actually thought it was all going to work out for us," Kenseth said. "We had a wheel come loose early and had to pit off sequence, that left us a set of tires short so we got the wave-around, were still off sequence and got to stay out one time and were able to lead that whole stint. It went green until the end and really I thought we were in good shape. We had the lead and got our tires way earlier than everybody, I knew we were making a ton of time on the leaders.
"I didn't think anybody could run that long on fuel, so I didn't even think about that one."
With his third-place finish, Regan Smith won $100,000 in Xfinity's Dash4Cash promotion as the highest finishing eligible driver. Smith admitted he was disappointed in his finish but winning the money added icing on the cake.
"That certainly takes the sting away from finishing third," Smith told TV reporters following the race. "We were not very good yesterday in practice. We will take some of Xfinity's money as a consolation prize, but I just want to win so bad."
Last week's Charlotte-winner Austin Dillon finished in fourth place with Sprint Cup regular Kasey Kahne coming home in fifth place. Defending Xfinity series champion Chase Elliott finished sixth followed by Brendan Gaughan, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones and Jeremy Clements rounding out the top-ten. NASCAR XFINITY Series Race Number 12
Unofficial Race Results for the 34Th Annual Buckle Up 200 Presented By
Click It Or Ticket - Saturday, May 30, 2015
Dover International Speedway - Dover, DE - 1 Mile Concrete
Total Race Length - 200 Laps - 200 Miles - Purse: $1,188,426
Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 2 60 Chris Buescher Roush Performance Products Ford 200 47 4 109.1 $63,702 Running 1 10
2 3 20 Matt Kenseth(i) Reser's Toyota 200 0 126.6 $35,286 Running 1 51
3 10 7 Regan Smith Breyers Chevrolet 200 41 116.4 $34,150 Running
4 8 33 Austin Dillon(i) Rheem Chevrolet 200 0 117.8 $24,083 Running 1 17
5 7 88 Kasey Kahne(i) Ragu Chevrolet 200 0 105.2 $22,598 Running
6 14 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 199 38 91.7 $27,877 Running
7 11 62 Brendan Gaughan South Point Chevrolet 199 37 94.4 $26,457 Running
8 12 3 Ty Dillon WESCO Chevrolet 199 36 92.1 $26,215 Running
9 6 54 Erik Jones(i) Monster Energy Toyota 199 0 126.7 $28,716 Running 2 70
10 15 51 Jeremy Clements RepairableVehicles.com/AllSouthElectric Chev 198 34 83.6 $26,362 Running
11 17 16 Ryan Reed Lilly/American Diabetes Association Ford 198 33 81.2 $25,158 Running
12 18 42 Brennan Poole DC Solar Chevrolet 198 32 78.0 $25,031 Running
13 24 44 David Starr Zachry Toyota 198 31 68.7 $24,931 Running
14 19 43 Dakoda Armstrong WinField Ford 198 30 68.5 $24,803 Running
15 16 25 John Wes Townley(i) Zaxby's Chevrolet 198 0 76.9 $25,328 Running
16 21 4 Ross Chastain # Heroes Haven Chevrolet 198 28 71.8 $25,652 Running
17 1 6 Darrell Wallace Jr. # Ford EcoBoost Ford 197 28 1 108.2 $27,976 Running 3 52
18 23 28 JJ Yeley Big Barrel Country Music Festival Toyota 197 26 64.7 $24,526 Running
19 4 18 Daniel Suarez # ARRIS Toyota 197 25 97.2 $24,475 Running
20 20 39 Ryan Sieg Uncle Bob's Self Storage Chevrolet 197 24 56.3 $24,925 Running
21 13 1 Elliott Sadler OneMain Financial Ford 196 23 77.6 $24,369 Running
22 28 01 Landon Cassill Meding's Seafood/Iron Source Chevrolet 195 22 61.8 $24,263 Running
23 37 26 CJ Faison Deputy Builders Toyota 194 21 44.9 $24,186 Running
24 30 24 Eric McClure Hefty Toyota 193 20 48.6 $24,111 Running
25 32 97 Peyton Sellers # Vroom Brands Chevrolet 193 19 50.5 $24,210 Running
26 34 0 Harrison Rhodes # teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet 192 18 47.7 $24,009 Running
27 33 15 BJ McLeod(i) BYBExtremeFighting.com Chevrolet 191 0 37.9 $17,959 Running
28 38 70 Derrike Cope Circle Track Warehouse Chevrolet 187 16 35.7 $17,883 Running
29 35 52 Joey Gase Donate Life Chevrolet 179 15 33.2 $23,808 Running
30 25 8 Blake Koch LeafFilter Gutter Protection Toyota 171 14 55.9 $24,057 Accident
31 36 13 Timmy Hill(i) Braille Battery/Grafoid Dodge 159 0 41.1 $17,701 Suspension
32 29 90 Mario Gosselin VR Victoriaville Chevrolet 147 12 40.8 $23,640 Running
33 26 14 Cale Conley # IAVA Toyota 135 11 56.3 $23,575 Accident
34 9 22 Ryan Blaney Hertz Ford 131 10 71.9 $23,540 Running
35 40 74 Mike Harmon In Memory of David Torteotot Dodge 113 9 27.1 $17,499 Suspension
36 5 2 Brian Scott ACME/Kraft Singles Chevrolet 63 8 71.1 $21,806 Accident
37 22 55 Jamie Dick Viva Auto Group Chevrolet 62 7 46.4 $20,806 Accident
38 27 40 Carl Long Braille Battery/Grafoid Toyota 33 6 32.7 $13,806 Engine
39 39 89 Morgan Shepherd Chevrolet 33 5 33.0 $12,806 Overheating
40 31 19 Jeff Green TriStar Motorsports Toyota 3 4 29.2 $11,806 Vibration
Race Comments: Chris Buescher won the Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket, his third career NASCAR XFINITY Series victory. Prior to the start of the race, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field for the reason indicated: No. 0 (unapproved adjustments); Nos. 13 and 40 (driver change).
Failed to Qualify: N/A
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 43 Mins, 39 Secs. Average Speed: 115.774 MPH Margin of Victory: 11.477 Seconds
Caution Flags: 4 for 23 laps: Laps: 4-6 (#39 Spin Turn 4 [None]); 57-61 (Debris Turn 3 [4]); 65-74 (#2, 22, 55 Accident Turn 1 [42]); 101-105 (#39, 44 Accident Turn 2 [44]).
Lead Changes: 7 among 5 drivers: D. Wallace Jr. # 1-41; A. Dillon(i) 42-58; E. Jones(i) 59-98; D. Wallace Jr. # 99-102; M. Kenseth(i) 103-153; E. Jones(i) 154-183; D. Wallace Jr. # 184-190; C. Buescher 191-200.
Top 10 Driver Points: (1) C. Buescher 448;(2) T. Dillon 433;(3) C. Elliott 411;(4) R. Smith 401;(5) D. Wallace Jr. # 399;(6) E. Sadler 375;(7) B. Scott 358;(8) R. Reed 353;(9) B. Gaughan 346;(10) D. Suarez # 345.
3M Lap Leader : Erik Jones, #54 70 Laps Coors Light Pole Award : Darrell Wallace Jr, #6 153.991 mph
Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race : Roush Yates Engines, #60 Mobil 1 Driver of the Race : Chris Buescher, #60
Sunoco Rookie of the Race : Ross Chastain, #4
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: Jun. 13, 2015 - Michigan International Speedway