Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs in on emotions behind Chris Buescher confrontation with Tyler Reddick
Chris Buescher and heartbreak. Two words suddenly synonymous with one another after the last two weekends of racing in the NASCAR Cup Series.
One week after Kyle Larson edged him out by 0.001 seconds for the win at Kansas, Buescher was in his words “wrecked” by Tyler Reddick while battling for the lead with 10 laps to go at Darlington this past Sunday. Two weeks in a row of being in position to win and having nothing to show for it stings, and Buescher finally reached his boiling point. He confronted Reddick on pit road after the race, putting his hands on the 23XI Racing driver and letting him know he expected better out of him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. recounted the incident on “The Dale Jr. Download” this week and said that if the finish to the race at Kansas didn’t go down the way it did, Buescher likely doesn’t go charging at Reddick after the finish at Darlington.
“I think that if last week doesn’t happen, I bet Buescher doesn’t march down there and talk to him. I bet he just bites his tongue and I doubt he would confront him,” Earnhardt said. “We talked to Buescher about last week’s race, and I’m like, ‘Dude, you’re gonna see this highlight for the rest of your life. You’re gonna see this close finish.’ And he told me, he’s like, ‘Man, it’s gonna sting. I’m never gonna get over it.’ And he even said that in his interview, ‘I’ve got this new highlight that I’ve seen all week long.’ It’s in his mind and certainly, probably now two weeks in a row he’s been in position to win.
“He said, ‘I’ve been thinking all week long and I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering what I could have done different at Kansas, but here I just got wrecked.’ And I think that’s fair. That’s a fair statement.”
Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick walk away with disappointing finishes after on-track incident at Darlington
Buescher and Reddick had to pit as a result of the slide job gone wrong and went from battling for the win to finishing P30 and P32, respectively. Brad Keselowski, Buscher’s RFK Racing teammate, inherited the lead and held on to break a 110-race winless streak.
Despite some quality runs over the duration of the season, Buescher currently sits just 15 points above the playoff cutline. A win would have clinched his spot in the postseason for the second consecutive season.
Earnhardt said he didn’t mind seeing Buescher show some emotion, nor did he hate the move Reddick attempted to put on him at that moment in the race.
“Reddick f***ed up,” Earnhardt said. “Reddick messed up. Buescher went up there and put his hands on him saying, ‘Hey, I expect you to be better.’ Fair. All fair game. Buescher’s not gonna swing on nobody. I was never worried of Buescher doing anything out of character. But it’s good to see Buescher angry. We talk to Chris Buescher, and we see some of his interviews — very measured. Very mild. So, it’s good to see some flare, some real emotion. It shows — we get to see how important winning is to Chris Buescher. And I equate that to the rest of the field. They all want to win that bad.
“As much as we wanna give Reddick a hard time about the move, I don’t want them to not make that move. If he doesn’t try to do that, we don’t get the crazy ending. … I don’t care who’s in the cars, I want that kind of racing. I want drivers doing things that create moments.”