Buescher Earns First Career Sprint Cup Win

By ESPN

Chris Buescher has spent 2016 living a season to forget.

What was there to remember? That scary flip at Talladega amid several hard wrecks in restrictor-plate events? He spent the first 20 weeks with no top-10 finishes while driving cars that obviously needed work; he had failed to qualify in the top 20 all year.

Through it all, Buescher persevered, in many ways with performances that justified his being under the radar, except when his car went airborne at Talladega.

Funny thing is, what was "under the radar" allowed Buescher to have a day to remember Monday in the Pennsylvania 400 to earn his first career Sprint Cup win.

Buescher, 22, had to wait 80 minutes after NASCAR declared a red flag for fog Monday afternoon at Pocono Raceway. With threats of severe weather and no lifting of the fog, NASCAR decided to end the race with just over 21 laps remaining.

Buescher was one of two drivers -- third-place Regan Smith was the other -- who had not yet made a final pit stop when the fog forced NASCAR to throw the caution on Lap 132 and then the red flag just before the drivers came to the line to complete Lap 139.

Everyone else had to pit for fuel or assumed the race would go longer. They could see rain a little further out but couldn't predict the under-the-radar fog.

So a quiet driver ended up in a quiet Victory Lane in a garage since NASCAR couldn't use the real Victory Lane because of the threat of lightning. It was a somewhat appropriate venue for a feel-good story for a driver who seems to savor getting behind the wheel and competing, whether he's running for 20th or for the lead.

"This is going to stir up our whole year. ... It's not going to [sink in] for a while," Buescher said of the win, which came in his 27th career Sprint Cup start. "It doesn't even feel real right now. It's so quiet in here. We're not even in the real Victory Lane. We're having to seek shelter. It was a pretty wild event."

The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook had Buescher at 1,000-to-1 to win the race. He is the first rookie to win a Cup race since Joey Logano did it in 2009.