Chris Buescher spent a long time sitting in his car thinking about the possibilities. NASCAR inspectors had stopped the Pennsylvania 400 with a red flag from the fog that settled over the Pocono Raceway after 138 of the 160 scheduled laps, with Buescher in first place. “I’m thinking of all kinds of rain dances,” Buescher said over the radio.
When NASCAR declared the race finished, Buescher officially had his first victory as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and became the first Front Row Motorsports driver to do so since David Ragan won at Talladega Superspeedway 118 races ago. Buescher took the 1st. place because he remained on the track while other faster cars pitted. Brad Keselowski finished 2nd., Followed by Regan Smith, whose team chose the same strategy, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart completed the Top 5.
And although the red flag finish kept Stewart shy of another win, the veteran pilot wished Buescher well. “He is a good lad and XFINITY champion (2015),” Stewart said over the radio during the red flag. “No matter how you manage your first win. What matters is achieving it.”.
Dillon took the lead on lap 3 and the two were fighting for the 1st. place until a new yellow flag came out on lap 85 and Logano chose not to pit, staying ahead until Martin Truex Jr. crashed into the outside wall on Lap 100 and led the 5th. yellow flag. Logano and Kevin Harvick pitted from 1st. and 2nd. position, respectively, and Larson inherited the head, followed by Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Dillon.
On lap 106, the chances of victory evaporated for Logano when the Chase Elliott No. 24 Chevrolet lost control and collided with Logano Ford No. 22. Buescher then came in 1st. place during a series of pit stops under green flag and stayed there until lap 124 when NASCAR called the 7th. yellow flag on lap 133 due to poor visibility.
With the victory, Buescher has a chance to enter the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup if he can finish the regular season of 26 races in the Top 30 of the drivers. After the race at Pocono, he was six points behind Ragan, who is in 30th.
Buescher is the first Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award candidate to win a Sprint Cup race since Logano did it in 2009, coincidentally, Logano won that victory in a race that ended prematurely because of rain in New Hampshire.
