Breaking It Down: What happened at Bristol, but more importantly, WHY?
After all the surprises and shake-ups of the first two races of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops Night Race was primed to put on a high-stakes showdown around the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway. As the first elimination race of the playoffs, the event lived up to the hype, but it came at the expense of many driver’s heartbreaks at the end of the night.
Entering the race, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, and Chase Briscoe sat on the outside looking in. Ahead of them sat playoff first-timers such as Daniel Suarez, Tyler Reddick, and Austin Cindric, who needed a clean race to make it to the Round of 12 comfortably.
In classic Bristol fashion, none of those drivers had a clean race. Briscoe fared the best out of the group, as his 500-lap battle with power steering issues turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While he battled tirelessly to hang on to his car, his playoff competitors were dropping out of contention like flies. Briscoe cruised to the next round, but behind him was an intense crawl to the finish that saw many drivers on the bubble throughout the night.
The first domino fell early on when Cindric lost a right front tire on lap 83. The unscheduled green flag pit stop sent him four laps down and left his playoff fate at the mercy of the field. Cindric and his team trudged on through the race, never getting laps back, but quietly establishing a firm margin of error for their competitors.
Their resilience showed its first inklings of fruition when Kyle Busch suffered his second engine failure in the past three weeks, effectively ending any control he had over his destiny. While this ultimately put Busch out of the playoffs in his last year with Joe Gibbs Racing, the elimination stings even more considering he was the likely winner at Darlington prior to blowing an engine.
Had Busch taken the win home at Darlington, he would have locked himself into the second round. Instead, he sat on the sidelines as a heavily lapped Cindric limped himself past Busch for the 12th and final playoff spot.
At this point, the playoff picture still included Richard Childress teammates Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick. That is until, just seven laps after Busch fell out of the race, Daniel Suarez lost control on the backstretch and collected both Dillon and Reddick.
Despite desperate repairs by their teams, Dillon could not get back before the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock expired, and Reddick’s heavily damaged car simply could not do anything beyond logging laps. It was only a matter of time before Cindric, “the little rookie that could,” moved past Reddick and Dillon, leaving another two driver’s playoff hopes to bite the dust.
Other things went conveniently right for Cindric and wrong for others in order to paint the playoff picture that stands heading into Texas this weekend. Cindric’s Team Penske teammates, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, also suffered tire issues that set them even further back.
Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace’s decision to return to the track took another point away from Kyle Busch. In fact, Cindric was not officially in the clear until lap 450 when Ty Dillon was forced to pit and surrendered his position to Cindric.
The last threat to make the 12th and final playoff spot was Kevin Harvick. Despite entering the final round of pitstops ahead of eventual winner Chris Buescher, a loose wheel on Harvick’s pitstop erased any chance the team had of winning their way to the next round. Although there’s no telling how things would have played out, Harvick had a competitive car for most of the day and could have shaken up the leaderboard if given the opportunity.
Brick by brick, the No. 2 team prevailed and lived to see another round at the expense of others. However, the manner in which the dominos fell for them to advance was a roller coaster of suspense that relied on luck and perseverance equally. Nonetheless, with two former champions now eliminated and four playoff first-timers advancing, this year’s playoffs are reaching uncharted territory in terms of unpredictability.
Speaking of unpredictability, Chris Buescher’s win to solidify the non-playoff driver sweep of the Round of 16, added even more to the drama on Saturday night.
With 100 laps to go, RFK Racing seemed well on its way to its first win as an organization, but not with Buescher. Teammate and owner, Brad Keselowski had one of the best cars all day, as he won Stage One and made a skillful pass on last year’s winner Kyle Larson to take the lead late in the race. However, Keselowski fell victim to a flat tire at the worst time. Within seconds, Keselowski went from eyeing one of his biggest career accomplishments to falling off the lead lap.
If there’s any silver lining, the bitterness soon turned sweet with Buescher’s gutsy two-tire call. With tire wear having a minimal impact on speed, Buescher took the lead and kept it after the final caution. He cruised to his second career victory ahead of the sport’s biggest names, taking famed owner Jack Roush back to victory lane for the first time in 191 races.
For those of you who don't have a calculator handy, that's the first time RFR -- make that RFK now -- has been in victory lane in over five years!
With Roush, the win took new co-owner Brad Keselowski to victory lane as well. Even though Keselowski was one tire short of winning it for himself, the consolation prize courtesy of Buescher certainly eased the heartbreak.
A first win for an owner is a beautiful thing. It rewards the long nights, checks signed, and disappointment that comes with running a race team. Most of all, the first win proves to an owner that they can win a second time, which does amazing things for the culture of an organization. Fans have recently seen it with teams like 23XI and Trackhouse, and with this win, fans may just see what they once knew as Roush Fenway Racing return to fame with Keselowski on board.
With the elusive first win out of the way and non-playoff drivers excelling in the playoffs this year, all hope is not lost for Keselowski to still get retribution. Especially with Talladega coming up, a track he has six wins at, Keselowski may just get a win as an owner-driver yet before season’s end.