Chris Buescher wins Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway
A huge day for RFK Racing as Chris Buescher takes the checkered flag in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. Combined with his boss, Brad Keselowski, those RFK boys led 189 laps of this 400-lap NASCAR race. Buescher had to earn it the hard way with a late caution restart with just three laps to go.
On the restart, Denny Hamlin had a chance to make things interesting. However, Chris Buescher held on to the lead and went on to perform one hell of a burnout. This is his first win since Bristol last fall in the playoffs.
While his boss can’t wait to win a race himself, Keselowski will be more than happy to raise a banner in his shop for the 17 team. This is Buescher’s third career win in the Cup Series.
Early on it was clear that the RFK cars were fast. Both Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski were able to lead at times in this race. However, once Buescher went on his long green flag run in the lead, it was settled. He had the best car out there and it was going to take one hell of a move to take this race from him.
While the 23XI Racing team was fast for about 3/4ths of this race, they would lose speed in the final stage. Tyler Reddick also had a mistake on pit road that put him down a lap and sank his chances at a win. He was perhaps the only driver capable of catching Buescher today.
This officially locks Buescher into the playoffs and he will not have to worry about points for the rest of the regular season.
Chris Buescher wins over Denny Hamlin
There was a late push from Denny Hamlin to end this race. After Chris Buescher extended his lead to 7+ seconds on the rest of the field, Hamlin started to creep up. At one point, he even ate away at that lead and put it to about 5 seconds. However, that speed didn’t last.
Eventually, Hamlin’s tires wore down and he wasn’t able to pick up ground on Buescher any longer. The Fords as a whole were strong all day. Not just the RFK group, but there was speed from Team Penske as well as Stewart-Haas Racing. Joey Logano got involved on the final restart seemingly coming from nowhere.
Kevin Harvick was strong, Aric Almirola was as well. Ryan Preece was able to come away with a top-5 finish. Briscoe was the fourth SHR car and he was 11th overall.
Even with that final restart, after an incident between Noah Gragson and Daniel Suárez, it wasn’t enough for Hamlin. He put it out there and almost lost control of his Toyota Camry TRD. Chris Buescher held on strong in the long run and on the restart and is the latest winner this season in the NASCAR Cup Series.