Buescher wins at Kentucky Speedway
SPARTA, Ky. — Once the smoke cleared, James Buescher made sure the field knew his truck was the strongest.
Again.
Buescher won the wreck-filled NASCAR Trucks race Friday night to complete a Kentucky Speedway season sweep, using strong pit stops and restarts to stay in contention before pulling away en route to his fourth victory of the year.
Buescher moved up a spot to second place in the season standings, four points behind rookie Ty Dillon. Parker Kligerman was second in the race, and Dillon finished third.
“Once we got this Chevy up front, it was on kill,” said Buescher, who led three times for 64 laps after starting eighth.
Buescher also won at the track in June.
Though Buescher seemed to have a strong truck, he had to wait awhile before showing it dominance. That’s because the first half of the race featured five cautions totaling 34 laps, denying many of the contenders the long green-flag runs they wanted.
One of the incidents collected championship contender Timothy Peters, who fell one spot to third and 22 points behind Dillon. Peters took several hits on lap 55, first from Max Gresham and then from rookie John King after his No. 17 Toyota drifted down on the apron, impact that lifted the truck off its wheels.
Kligerman brought out a caution on the 81st lap when he got close to the left rear of John Wes Townley in the fourth turn, avoiding contact but not trouble as he spun out. But soon after the restart, Kligerman was back in the top 10 and managed a runner-up finish.
“We got what we needed on fuel stops,” Kligerman said. “We were so loose on restarts it really stopped us from stamping our authority.”
Pole-sitter Joey Coulter was fourth, and Brian Scott fifth.
Coulter set the early pace, though Buescher made his first charge to run second by lap 14.
That’s when the madness began, as Todd Bodine spun without contact coming out of turn 4. Things reshuffled quickly soon after on lap 21 as Johnny Sauter blew a tire and collected Tim George Jr. and Bodine, whose No. 11 Toyota sustained heavy damage and did not return.
The second caution lasted 12 laps as crews cleaned up debris.
Scott led the restart but Buescher won a door-to-door battle on the low side to take the lead with Nelson Piquet squeezing through for third. But then another yellow flag followed, as rookie Bryan Silas spun and brushed the turn 2 wall.
Ryan Blaney, the 18-year-old who became the series’ youngest winner last week at Iowa Speedway, finished 11th after starting 16th.
He struggled to get through the mess, but stayed out during the fourth caution caused by Brennan Newberry’s wreck in the backstretch and led on the restart at lap 50. Blaney cracked the top 10 late in the race before falling back.
Only 14 of 36 trucks finished on the lead lap.