Chris Buescher Great Season Continues, Wins At Daytona (8-26-23)
By: Becca Cottingham Quimby
Headline Photo Credit: Mike Watters-USA Today
We head to Daytona for what will be our final race of the regular season. We have two teammates up front Chase Briscoe and Aric Almirola. Both need a win to get into the playoffs. The Fords were the initial leading with huge momentum, but the second line and an attempt at line three were made. Cars that are in the third spot and on backward start getting swirly. The third car plays a huge role in connecting everyone. The Toyotas will link up together as much as possible and they will then take over the lead. Denny Hamlin makes some aggressive moves and goes straight to the front. This will lead him to a battle with his teammate Martin Truex Jr. They will battle extremely hard on who will win stage two and trade back and forth for the last several laps. It comes down to the last moment where Kevin Harvick makes a move to get from behind Denny Hamlin and it sends him backwards. Allowing Martin Truex Jr. to win stage two. Everyone will hit the pit road for fuel and tires. Kyle Busch gets hit with a penalty for his crew being over the wall too soon. This will send him to the rear before stage two begins.
We head into stage two with Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. leading us to green. Joey has Kevin Harvick behind him and he will get a big shove and they get clear of Martin Truex Jr. All the while behind them they are trying to make it three wide to make three lanes. The third lane starts working and does lead Chase Elliot to the lead and a battle for the lead. Along with AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Busch who was penalized on the pitstop during the stage break. Denny Hamlin radios his team and says he is bailing from the three racing as the racing is extremely dicey. The third line starts to break up and fall apart sending anyone left backwards. We will get green flag pitstops. We see three penalties with green flag stops Denny Hamlin, Brenden Poole, Riley Herbst. They did very mixed manufacturers with this pit strategy. Harrison Burton leads the field for a little bit with Daniel Suarez right behind him. Then Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez take over. Then the energy changes and Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, and Ty Gibbs are all upfront. Changes take place quickly along with Brad Keselowski moving up front. A bump from Christopher Bell into an already loose Ty Gibbs. This triggers a huge accident on the last lap of stage two and brings out the red flag. At least sixteen cars were involved in the accident where Ryan Blaney hit the wall hard. Brad Keselowski will be credited with the stage two win.
We head back to racing again with the Fords back in the lead with Chase Briscoe and Aric Almirola. They will lead the race for most of the stage three. While we are waiting for pit stops that will more than likely be mainly fuel. We see pit stops starting at around lap sixteen with a large group. After pitstops happen and under ten laps to go we get a violet wreck with Ryan Preece. With the violent crash, it will lead to overtime. Both Ryan Preece and Austin Cindric are out of the race after a great race by Austin Cindric. We head into overtime and drivers will have to pull their seat belts extra tight for the green, white, and checkered flag. There will be lots of pushing and bumps and maybe even additional wrecks. Thankfully we getting the pushing and bumps. Even some locked bumpers, but not wrecks. Brad Keselowski and Christopher Buescher end up together with Christopher leading. They can block and this will get Christopher his third unofficial win of the season.
