CP MOTORSPORTS - LATE RACE PUSH PROPELS BUESCHER TO XFINITY WIN

 

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Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images
Chris Buescher, driver of the #60 Roush Performance Products Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket at Dover International Speedway on May 30, 2015 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)

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."

Darrell Wallace Jr., driver of the #6 Ford EcoBoost Ford, and Chris Buescher, driver of the #60 Roush Performance Products Ford, leads the field to the green flag for the running of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket at Dover International Speedway on May 30, 2015 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Chris Trotman/NASCAR via Getty Images)

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.

Regan Smith, driver of the #7 Breyers Chevrolet, looks on from the grid prior to qualifying for the NASCAR XFINITY Series Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket at Dover International Speedway on May 30, 2015 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

"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
 

 

 

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