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Richmond 'won't be an easy walk' for Chase bubble boys
Chris Buescher is in a unique and somewhat uncomfortable position heading into tonight’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
With a victory at Pocono last month, Buescher became eligible to participate in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the sanctioning body’s 10-race, season-ending playoff round.
But to make the Chase, Buescher needs to be in the top 30 in points after tonight’s race.
Heading into the last race of the Cup regular season, Buescher sits in 30th, with a narrow lead of just 11 points over 31st-place David Ragan.
But Friday at Richmond, Ragan qualified 21st, a full 10 positions ahead of Buescher’s N0. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. It could be tough to Buescher to hold onto 30th if Ragan has a big night.
“We are trying to stay out of trouble and be there at the end,” said Buescher after qualifying. “It won’t be an easy walk from where we are at right now but we will be able to work our way up.”
One statistic that should give Buescher optimism: Only once in 25 races so far this year has Ragan finished a race at least 11 positions ahead of Buescher. Odds are good that Buescher should hold his spot in the Chase tonight, but it’s not a slam-dunk.
The same can be said of Jamie McMurray, the current No. 16 Chase seed. McMurray is 22 points ahead of Ryan Newman for the final Chase spot at the moment.
McMurray qualified an excellent fourth, 11 positions ahead of Newman and was noticeably faster in both of Friday’s practice sessions as well. It is highly unlikely -- though certainly not impossible -- that Newman can make up 22 points on McMurray in tonight’s race.
The biggest vulnerability for McMurray could be if there’s a first-time winner tonight, which could result in McMurray being bumped out. But that, too, is something of a long shot.
“Well, it’s a really big weekend for us, but more than that I’m just thrilled how both of our cars are running,” said McMurray, who saw his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kyle Larson qualify second.
“We have just made such big improvements,” said McMurray. “We ran good at a 2-mile track at Michigan. We ran good at Darlington with a different rules package and we’ve run good at a short track. As an organization, it’s been really good and the next 10 races, if we can get in (the Chase), it’s going to be pretty awesome because our cars have peaked at the right time.”
