CONCORD, N.C. – Chris Buescher used a restart with five laps to go in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at to rocket from 12th to earn a season-high sixth at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
It was an adventurous race for the JTG Daugherty Racing driver who during Stage 2 made contact with the wall. Buescher, however still drove a crinkled No. 37 Kroger Thrill of the Grill Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to his second consecutive top-10 finish.
“I end up sixth; what a great night for us,” said Buescher. “Our Kroger Thrill of the Grill Camaro ZL1 had great speed from the drop of the green. The second stage we just tried to get it up a little too high and I got up in the fence. I cut a tire down later and lost a lap. We knew we had speed still, but this group did a terrific job of repairing it.”
Buescher’s third top-10 finish arrives on the heels of a 10th place finish at Kansas Speedway and surpasses a previous season-high of ninth at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, the second race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
The Prosper, Texas native credits his team for continuing to work on the handling following practice Saturday and throughout Sunday’s ever-changing track characteristics to allowing him to fight near the front – even after a brush with the wall not even halfway during the race.
“We worked really hard after practice making a lot of changes,” added Buescher. “It was just a great effort all around; the pit crew did a terrific job. We were able to come out there at the end and get an awesome finish. We have to keep improving a little bit, but it was a pretty awesome night.”
Before Brad Keselowski spun on Lap 392 to bring out the final caution, Buescher had muscled his way to 10th and despite losing two spots on pit road to varying pit strategies, Buescher had four new tires and a splash of gas to make it to the 600-mile finish.
The gutsy five-lap effort from Buescher propelled him to the second highest Chevrolet finishing driver in NASCAR’s crown jewel race and up one spot in the championship standings to 22nd after 13 races.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
