It was the first fog-shortened race since 1972. Jones has failed to finish three races, while Sadler, the series leader, has run every event clean. That made restarts a challenge as cars slid all over the track.
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A win is a win.
The remaining positions will be filled by the highest-ranked drivers.
“It’s tough for me to know I was involved in that incident”, Buescher said. To make the Chase on points, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet must hope for a repeat victor AND outscore Newman by either 22 or 23 points (depending on how the tiebreaker falls) AND must have Buescher fall out of the top 30.
Yeah, that’s the trick.
HARVICK’S THE PITS: Although he leads the points standings and is a Chase lock with two victories, Kevin Harvick is something less than a happy camper.
Clearly, Elliott shares one hope with the four other drivers he’s battling for a Chase berth on points (Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne), namely that there’s no new victor at Richmond – unless, of course, they happen to be that new victor.
He also has a chance to pass teammate Landon Cassill, 10 points ahead in 29th place.
“You never want to be part of anything like that”, Buescher said.
He is now 13th in the standings and 251 points ahead of Ragan.
“We’ve definitely learned a ton over the past couple of weeks”, said Buescher, who has four top-20s in his last six starts.
Race distance: 300 miles, 400 laps. Although he has the necessary victory for Chase qualification, he hasn’t clinched a spot inside the top 30.
Last week: Scott Dixon won at Watkins Glen, his second victory of the season. Not a road-course guy?
If that gets Buescher into the Chase, there will be one regret. Kahne’s best hope is to win the race, and that’s a scenario he’s experienced before. “It isn’t bad for our first Cup series race here in Darlington”. Richmond is not a good track for Dillon. The elimination format did not exist in 2013 and Newman finished 11th that season. Now he must translate that success to Sprint Cup.
“That is not necessarily comforting because we still have a lot of work to do”, Buescher said. Similarly, in the race for the Chase, Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher are most likely to earn spots in the playoff because they are starting with an advantage and control their own destinies. So we need to keep with our strategy of being aggressive where it makes sense while being cautious and playing a little defense at the same time. “I feel like we have a good cushion right now coming out of [Darlington]”.
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Buescher, the rookie from Prosper, was caught up in one of seven wrecks during the June race at Michigan International Speedway.
