This marks the first time Buescher has won back-to-back races in his Cup Series career. He won the Cook Out 400 at Richmond on July 30 after a strategy call played in his favor.
Now, Buescher has four career wins at NASCAR’s top level, with three of those coming in the last 31 races.
“Thank you for all at fans that hung out here on Monday with us, it’s awesome,” Buescher said. “Glad we got to get this whole thing in. I know it’s been a long weekend. This Castrol Mustang was so good in practice, qualifying. Gave me a great car again. Had to work for that one too, hard racing at the end.
“We’ve got work to do yet. That’s massive progress right there for us to do at two vastly different racetracks. We got road races coming up. I’m excited for those, too. And Daytona. I look at the schedule we have ahead of us. This is a heck of a time to get turned on and get rolling.”
Buescher’s boss and teammate Brad Keselowski also had an impressive day, finishing fourth in the No. 6 Ford Mustang.
“Really happy for all the folks at Castrol, RFK,” Keselowski said. “There’s a lot of work going on here. We’re digging deep, getting the results. I’m so thankful and proud for everyone at RFK.”
NASCAR was very close to seeing yet another Monday Martin Truex Jr. win, but unfortunately for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, 55 points, two stage wins and a second-place finish will have to do.
“We had an unbelievable car today. Hats off to everybody that puts in the work on these things. Toyota TRD, Bass Pro, Reser’s, everybody that supports us,” Truex Jr. said. “It was a rocket. The leader in clean air is really, really hard to pass. Just didn’t quite have enough. All in all, a good day.”
Results from the rain-delayed 2023 FireKeepers Casino 400 are listed below.
Other Race Facts
Ford domination at Michigan International Speedway continued on Monday as the Blue Ovals have won nine straight races at the track.
A driver winning back-to-back at Richmond and Michigan has happened two years in a row. Kevin Harvick did it in 2022 and now Buescher has done it in 2023. Coincidentally, both drivers were driving a Ford.
Ty Gibbs finished 11th and now sits as the last driver in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
If the postseason started today, Toyota would have all six full-time drivers qualify for the playoffs. Gibbs would also be the first rookie driver to point his way into the playoffs since Chase Elliott in 2016.
Although Gibbs had a solid points day at Michigan, he still felt some disappointment about his performance and thought a better result was possible.
“Yeah, I feel like we had a great Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD,” Gibbs said. “I just didn’t do my job. I didn’t execute. I need to do a better job – be smarter, better race craft. I don’t know if that’s more studying or what. Just didn’t do a good job today. I appreciate all of the team effort. We had a great car – I just didn’t do my job.”
After completing over 20,000 laps in his Cup Series career in 93 races, Josh Bilicki finally led his first career lap.
16 different drivers led at least one lap during the FireKeepers Casino 400.
GRID Ranking
Drivers in the seven racing series participating in the ranking (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, World Rally Championship, Repco Supercars, MotoGP) have earned GRID Ratings, which helped determine their seeding during Week 18 of the 2023 GRID Ranking.
|
DRIVER |
OLD RATING |
PREVIOUS RANKING |
MOST RECENT FINISH |
NEW RATING |
NEW RANKING |
|
Martin Truex Jr. |
11.13 |
19th |
2nd |
11.77 |
17th |
|
William Byron |
11.32 |
18th |
35th |
10.83 |
20th |
|
Kyle Busch |
10.93 |
20th |
37th |
10.46 |
21st |
|
Kyle Larson |
9.88 |
25th |
5th |
10.08 |
24th |
|
Denny Hamlin |
9.49 |
29th |
3rd |
10.02 |
26th |
Week 19 of the GRID Ranking:
Week 19 of the #GRIDRanking. Kalle Rovanperä scored dropped with his rough weekend, Jake Dennis moves into the top 10. Marco Bezzecchi also drops down with the crash at the #BritishGP.#F1 | #ABBFormulaE | #INDYCAR | #MotoGP | #NASCAR | #RepcoSC | #WRC pic.twitter.com/YLd8gP1aea
— GRID Network (@GridNetworkTV) August 7, 2023
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