It was the best thing that could have happened to him.
Buescher, who was running 11th going into turn four, took advantage of a chain-reaction wreck that took out the leaders - including Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Trevor Bayne, Tony Stewart, Elliott Sadler and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - hugged the yellow line under caution and coasted to victory at Daytona International Speedway for the first Nationwide Series win of his career.
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| Image Credit: autoweek.com |
"Nobody wanted to work with me at the end there," said Buescher, 21, and a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular. "It was like we were all on our own in a tandem draft. We just got the best draft we could off of everybody. I saw them get together up there รข€¦ I went to the bottom and somehow squeaked through and dodged all the bullets."
The field was frozen after the caution came out, and Buescher wasn't sure he had won after leading his only lap of the race. Or quarter-lap to be precise.
"It's hard to describe the feeling when you make it through the wreck and you're the only guy," he said. "You don't see anybody in front of you coming to the checkered flag. It's pretty incredible."
The race was marred by several big wrecks as drivers learned to cope with the new rules packages designed to encourage pack racing instead of tandem racing on the restrictor-plate, superspeedway.
The big one came on lap 104 of the 120-lap race when 20 cars were involved; and a 14-car pileup ensued a lap later. Pole-sitter Danica Patrick was knocked off the track after a shove from Cole Whitt, her teammate at JR Motorsports, sending Patrick into the wall and consigning her to a 38th-place finish.
The Busch brothers appeared on the brink of a 1-2 finish when Logano, being pushed by Bayne, made his move on the Busches, triggering the late collision.
That allowed Buescher, who finished 17th in the trucks race on Friday night and was third in the trucks series last year, to post his first victory since winning back-to-back ARCA wins at Daytona and Kentucky in 2009.
"It's been a while, but I can't think of another racetrack that I'd rather it be at," Buescher said. "Daytona is historical. Everybody knows that. Every driver dreams of winning here.
"My goal as a young driver was to be able to race at Daytona in NASCAR. I've done that several times, but now we finally won here. I don't know how to put it in words."
source: http://www.sacbee.com
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