Buescher wins Watkins Glen Playoff race, defeats Van Gisbergen on the final lap

The Go Bowling at the Glen was not your typical road race. It was rolling chaos from lap one to overtime and lap 92.

At the end of overtime, lap 92, Chris Buescher emerged victorious over Shane Van Gisbergen in a bumper-to-bumper, last lap duel in overtime on Sunday afternoon at The Glen.

Simply put, it was a last lap duel for the ages.

The win was Buescher’s first road course win of his career, his first win of 2024 and took a little of the sting off after missing qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Playoffs when Chase Briscoe won the regular-season finale at Darlington three weeks ago.

At the green flag restart in overtime, Van Gisbergen took the lead from the second row in a daring three-wide move on the restart, but a determined Buescher would not be denied.

Video: Buescher wins last lap duel

The native Texan driving the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, chased down Van Gisbergen and made contact with SVG’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet on the course’s famous bus stop with Buescher sliding his Mustang inside Van Gisbergen’s Camaro in the esses, to a .979-second win over the New Zealander in the second Playoff race of the season.

“Oh man, it was such a good Ford Mustang, speed was so great and long run speed phenomenal,” said the 31-year-old Buescher following the race. “I thought we lost it there on the last one but, man, to stay right there with him. It was a spot he was better than us, but he just missed it so I tried to cross over and just hard racing. What an awesome finish. To be that good for so much at the end of the race – all race – to get a win is good.”

He added that the RFK team “came here to be spoilers and we’re going to do that.”

Van Gisbergen, who won the Chicago Street Race last season in his first ever NASCAR Cup Series start in 2023, was a factor all day.

The former Australian Supercars champion, will compete fulltime in the NASCAR Cup Series next year in the No. 88 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing.

Van Gisbergen said of his slip in the bus stop in overtime, “Driver error, yeah, I knew Chris was really going to send it and push me if he could get there and as I turned back I was a bit loose and clipped the inside wall. Just driver error and I’m gutted. The race was really awesome there with Ross [Chastain] and Chris [Buescher] and the others at the end, but I’m gutted we couldn’t get it. We had a lot of fun, but I’m pretty angry at myself.”

Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Spire’s Zane Smith rounded out the top-five. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe finished sixth, followed by Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell, Spire’s Corey LaJoie, SHR’s Ryan Preece and Team Penske’s Austin Cindric.

The Playoff contenders

Here’s the shocking point; Briscoe and Cindric were the only two Playoff drivers to finish among the top-10 in what was a huge challenge all afternoon for 12 of the 16 Playoff drivers racing for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.

From lap one to lap 92, the changes were mind blowing head scratchers.

For Denny Hamlin, many are scratching their heads as to his strategy going into the playoffs. A less than stellar performance (24th) at Atlanta combined with Hamlin’s accidents at the beginning of the race and involvement in a three-wide line of Playoff drivers challenging the esses, including Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski, would not end well for the driver of the 11 car.

Hamlin found out that there wasn’t enough room for his Toyota and his Camry suffered damage once again. The incident at mid-race relegated the No 11 FedEx/Joe Gibbs Racing driver to a 23rd place finish and sent Hamlin sinking further near the cutline quicksand.

If Hamlin and company can’t right the ship with a win at Bristol next week and ends up struggling at The World’s Fastest Half Mile, the Chesterfield native could be out of contention yet again, for his first Cup championship.

Kyle Larson and fellow Playoff drivers, including regular-season champion Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and William Byron were involved in multiple incidents throughout the day. The race also ended a streak of five consecutive Hendrick Motorsports wins at the historic 2.45-mile Watkins Glen track.

Among the Playoff drivers, Larson finished 12th, followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, Bell and Logano rounding out the top-15. Hendrick’s Alex Bowman was 18th, followed by teammate Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr.

JGR’s Ty Gibbs was 22nd, followed by his teammate Hamlin and the Wood Brothers’ Harrison Burton. Keselowski was 26th and Reddick 27th. Byron ended up 34th and Ryan Blaney was 38th, the first car out.

Implications for next weekend in Bristol

With the results from Watkins Glen, and one race left (Bristol) in this opening three-race Playoff round, Christopher Bell now holds a three-point edge on Team Penske’s Austin Cindric atop the standings with Alex Bowman five points back.

Logano’s win at Atlanta two weeks ago scored him an automatic bid into the next round. Heading into Saturday night’s first round elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin is now ranked 13th, six points below his JGR teammate Gibbs on the cutoff line.

Close to but on the other side of the cutoff fence is Brad Keselowski at 12 points back and Martin Truex, Jr. who is now 14 points back and Harrison Burton is 20 points off the transfer position.

“It’s just crazy all these races always come down to this and I don’t really understand how guys can call themselves the best in the world when they just drive through everyone on restarts at the end of these races,” Truex added. “It’s very frustrating, but it is what it is these days. I thought our Camry was solid, needed to be better on long runs for sure, but worked hard and persevered and had a decent day but as always you get the cautions at the end and guys just run through you.”

Truex was, at one point during the race, ran up front early, was a Stage One winner and more than a dozen points above the cutoff line.

It will all come to a head Saturday night at The Last Great Colosseum as the race will be the cutoff point for four drivers as the Playoffs head into the round of 12. It will also be the exclamation point on a triple-header race weekend at Bristol’s high-banks with Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Denny Hamlin is the defending winner.

NASCAR Cup Series Race – Go Bowling at The Glen

Watkins Glen International
Watkins Glen, New York
Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024

Finishing Order, Starting Order, Driver, Make, Laps Completed (P) – Playoff  # – Rookie

1. (24)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 92.
2. (3)  Shane Van Gisbergen(i), Chevrolet, 92.
3. (29)  Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 92.
4. (1)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 92.
5. (19)  Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 92.
6. (12)  Chase Briscoe (P), Ford, 92.
7. (10)  Michael McDowell, Ford, 92.
8. (18)  Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 92.
9. (21)  Ryan Preece, Ford, 92.
10. (5)  Austin Cindric (P), Ford, 92.
11. (9)  Noah Gragson, Ford, 92.
12. (20)  Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 92.
13. (8)  Daniel Suarez (P), Chevrolet, 92.
14. (17)  Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 92.
15. (7)  Joey Logano (P), Ford, 92.
16. (37)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 92.
17. (32)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 92.
18. (4)  Alex Bowman (P), Chevrolet, 92.
19. (14)  Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 92.
20. (2)  Martin Truex Jr. (P), Toyota, 92.
21. (35)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 92.
22. (15)  Ty Gibbs (P), Toyota, 92.
23. (22)  Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 92.
24. (33)  Harrison Burton (P), Ford, 92.
25. (31)  Josh Berry #Ford, 92.
26. (28)  Brad Keselowski (P), Ford, 92.
27. (16)  Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 92.
28. (23)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 92.
29. (36)  Justin Haley, Ford, 92.
30. (13)  Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 92.
31. (27)  Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 92.
32. (34)  Juan Pablo Montoya, Toyota, 91.
33. (25)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 90.
34. (11)  William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 90.
35. (38)  Kaz Grala # Ford, 87.
36. (6)  AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, Transmission, 6.
37. (26)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 2.
38. (30)  Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, Accident, 0.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 85.226 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 38 Mins, 41 Secs. Margin of Victory:  .979 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 21 laps.
Lead Changes: 11 among 9 drivers.