Yahoo Autos NASCAR’s Round of 12 is Set as Chris Buescher Wins at Bristol
Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Tyler Reddick, and Austin Dillon were eliminated after Bristol Saturday night.
Chris Buescher scored his second career Cup win, his first coming the rain shortened race at Pocono in 2016.
Buescher is the series 19th different winner in 2022 tying a record dating back to 2001.
Then there were 12.
Just like that – in a minute over three hours on Saturday night – NASCAR’s field of Cup Series championship hopefuls went from 16 to 12. The Bass Pro Shop Night Race at Bristol eliminated former champion Kevin Harvick of Stewart Haas Racing, two-time champion Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing, and Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick from the Playoff field.
Harvick, a two-time champion, was in a “must-win” situation to advance to the Round of 8. He ran well, finishing 10th, but was still 24 points below the cut line at the end of 500 laps. Dillon finished 31st and fell 11 points below the line.
“It was pretty tough,” Harvick said. “We pitted in front of the 17, so just kind of the way the year has gone. Just went from having a chance to lead the parade to being a part of the parade. Just difficult to pass. Parted it way too fast through the corners. Can't race.”
Thirty-fourth place Busch was in good shape until his engine failed late and he fell two points below the line. Reddick finished 25th and was also two points shy of staying in the championship hunt.
“It just goes with our year,” Busch said. “I don’t even know what to say. I’m flabbergasted. I just feel so bad for my guys. They don’t deserve to be in this spot. They work too hard. We are too good of a group to be this low – down on the bottom, fighting for our lives just to make it through. Two engine failures in three weeks, that will do it to you.”
Chris Buescher won the caution-filled race, marking the third consecutive Playoff race won by a non-Playoff driver. (Erik Jones won at Darlington and Bubba Wallace won last weekend in Kansas City). Buescher, of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, led twice for race high 169 of the 500 laps, including the final 61. It was his first victory this year, the second of his Cup career, and his first at Bristol. Before Saturday night, his most recent victory was a rain-shortened race at Pocono in 2016.
“We’ve been really close and fighting hard to get here,” Buescher said. “We’ve had a great summer. A little bad luck, but we didn’t have any of that tonight. We had some good fortune and some good execution and a fast race car and got to park in Victory Lane.”
He fairly comfortably beat former Cup Series champion and Playoff driver Chase Elliott, Playoff drivers William Byron, Christopher Bell, defending champion and Playoff driver Kyle Larson, and Playoff driver Ross Chastain who rounded out the top five. Non-playoff drivers AJ Allmendinger and Cole Custer were seventh and eighth, with Playoff driver Denny Hamlin ninth, and non-Playoff driver Aric Almirola in 10th.
The 12 survivors of the three races in the Round of 16 are (in order of points) Bell, Byron, Hamlin, Elliott, Larson, Chastain, Logano, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, and Austin Cindric.
The second three-race Playoff set opens with a 500-miler next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. The tour goes from there to Talladega Superspeedway for another 500-miler on Oct. 2, then completes the Round of 12 with 249 miles on Oct. 9 on the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The eight remaining championship contenders will race on consecutive weekends at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, and finally at Martinsville Speedway, where the Championship 4 will be set. The highest finisher among those four at the Nov. 6 season-finale at Phoenix Raceway will be the champion. (The champion doesn’t have to win the 312-mile race, he simply has to finish ahead of the other three contenders).
NASCAR Playoff Standings
The Round of 12 starts at Texas and ends at the Charlotte Roval.
Chase Elliott 3040
Joey Logano 3025
Ross Chastain 3020
Kyle Larson 3019
William Byron 3015
Denny Hamlin 3013
Christopher Bell 3013
Ryan Blaney 3013
Chase Briscoe 3009
Alex Bowman 3007
Daniel Suarez 3007
Austin Cindric 3006
