Chris Buescher became the second driver to flip in the Next Gen car during Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 but the first one who needed it to be turned over before being able to climb out.
Buescher walked away from the lap 346 crash in which his car flipped multiple times through the frontstretch grass. The melee started when Daniel Suarez, running inside the top 10, got tight off Turn 4 and spun. Buescher and three others were collected in the incident, with Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing Mustang bouncing off Suarez’s spinning car.
The rollover was caused when Buescher’s damaged car, likely the tire, caught under the car and sent it airborne. Buescher’s car rolled five times before coming to a rest on its roof.
We are very thankful that @Chris_Buescher is ok.
He was evaluated and released from the infield care center. pic.twitter.com/w97UBrxU3Q
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 30, 2022
“It’s not ideal by any means,” Buescher said. “I’m going to be a bit sore tomorrow. I haven’t been upside-down in a really long time.
“The team did a really nice job. We had great speed and had a chance at this thing, it just didn’t work out.”
NASCAR said it took approximately five minutes to get the car flipped over for Buescher to climb out. Harrison Burton was the first driver to flip the car in the Daytona 500, but Burton’s landed back on four wheels.
“I do appreciate them for helping me and setting it back over again, so thank you to everybody working for not slamming it back,” said Buescher. “It was nice to be able to get out. The blood is rushing to your head a little bit. I guess I could have pulled the belts and fallen right to the ground but figured I’d just wait on them.”
The crash was a disappointing end to a race where Buescher and the No. 17 RFK Racing team showed speed. After rebounding from being involved in a lap 18 spin, Buescher ran inside the top 10 throughout the night and earned points by placing there at the end of the third stage. He finished 26th.
“Our team did a really nice job and made some huge gains through the weekend,” Buescher said. “I’m really proud of them. We had a good race car. We drove all the way into the top 10 and just got back a little bit there and got around cars that really hadn’t been and got caught up in a wreck. It’s unfortunate.”
