For Chris Buescher, the apologies from Tyler Reddick do not minimize the potential damage done to his overall season.
Racing for the win on Sunday at Darlington Raceway with 10 laps to go, Reddick basically threw a dirt track slider on Buescher for the lead. Reddick slid into Buescher, door-to-door, and they bounced off the wall.
First, it cut the left rear on the 23XI Racing No. 45 driven by Reddick but then the right rear on the RFK Racing No. 17 driven by Buescher let go. That allowed Brad Keselowski to drive by to the lead, just 20 laps after he lost a battle with Reddick that seemingly eliminated him from contention in real-time.
First, it has to be understood that the leader has a significant advantage at most tracks in the NASCAR Cup Series and the trailing car is subjected to a great deal of aerodynamic wake. Reddick says he kept stalling out behind Buescher and felt like surprising him with a slider could have been the winning move.
Alas, it ended the race for both of them, and delivered Keselowski his first win in three years over 100 races since his move from Penske to a driver-owner role at what was then Roush Fenway Racing. The victory also broke a yearlong winless streak for Ford Performance across all three NASCAR national touring divisions.
“We were all just racing our guts out,” Keselowski said. “I mean, there was nothing left on the table for any of us. I got underneath Tyler. We were kind of switching back and forth and I felt like he was probably holding me down. He probably felt like he was being pushed up.
“Chris got by both of us, but Chris’ car was falling off too much. He couldn’t drive away and we were just right there with him and it looked like the 45 tried to do a slide job and it just didn’t quite work and both of them had some kind of an issue. We were able to scoot back by them. A hell of a day. I don’t know if you could have asked for me. We thought Kansas was exciting. I think this was more exciting.”
This was the battle that eventually set-up the decisive moment of the race.
While Keselowski celebrated, Buescher climbed out of his car and confronted Reddick doing the same on pit road.
Buescher: “What was that?! What was that?!”
Reddick: “I know. I fucked up. I’m sorry!”
Buescher: “No shit!”
Reddick: “Hey. Chris. I’m really …”
Buescher: “We have raced each other clean. What was that about?”
Reddick: “As soon as I knew that wasn’t going to work, I tried to back out and I got… The last thing I wanted to do was wreck your car. I can care less about mine. I’m sorry. I fucked up. I fucked up.”
Buescher: “It doesn’t work for me. We don’t have that sticker on our door right now. You need to be better.
Reddick, as he takes his earbuds out: “Huh?”
Buescher: “I don’t have that sticker on my door. This means more. I need you to be better. We’ve raced each other just fine for so long.”
Reddick, nods: “I know. I’m sorry.”
That’s what Reddick told the media afterwards too.
“I completely understand where he is coming from,” Reddick said. “He was running the top, running his own race, running his own line to keep me at bay. I made a really aggressive move and was hoping I was going to clear him, when I realized, I wasn’t going to, I tried to check up to not slide up into him, but yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that.
“I completely understand why he is that mad. He did nothing wrong. Just trying to win the race, and to take myself out – that’s one thing – I can live with that, but just disappointed it played out the way that it did, and I took him out of the race as well. That was not the goal there. If I was going to go for it, I was hoping I was going to clear him. If I hit the wall, pop a tire – I take myself out, I can live with that – it’s tough to walk away knowing I used someone up, and took away their chance of winning the race, that has raced me really cleanly since he came in the Cup Series. Just have to work on that and try to make some better decisions going forward.”
Did he feel like that move what his only shot?
“It’s hard to say,” Reddick said. “It’s really hard to get that close. Grip had completely gone away from and I was just trying to surprise him when he wasn’t ready for it. Yeah. I tried to back out of it but it’s Darlington. There’s no grip left and I hate that it took him out of the race too. Yeah.”
He was as contrite as that reads.
Buescher, as he told Reddick, also told the media that he felt like that did more damage to him because he hasn’t won a race yet. Reddick won at Talladega and is already locked into the playoffs. Reddick finishing 32nd hurts far less than Buescher finishing 30th did because he hasn’t won yet.
If he slumps over the summer, this could be the difference in making or missing the playoffs. It stings even worse because he also lost the photo finish last weekend at Kansas.
“I’m pissed off because this Fifth Third Bank team deserves it,” Buescher said.
Buescher lost to Larson at Kansas, in part, because he got doored. Will this make him more aggressive moving forward?
“It about has to,” Buescher said. “I guess that’s the way we have to go about it too. Last week, someone had a run on us and I tried to cover it and realized it wasn’t going to work and left a lane. And you know, no one hit anything until the frontstretch and we still got doored and we at least we both made it to the line, unlike it where it ruined both of our days.”
Buescher is especially frustrated because he legitimately has a reputation as one of the cleanest drivers in the sport.
“I grew up having to fix my own race cars,” Buescher said. “I couldn’t always afford to fix doors or fix noses and I try to remember that in how I race now. We’re going to race hard sometimes but I just can’t understand, can’t find a reason or excuse where that makes sense from him.”
And it doesn’t matter that Reddick apologized because that doesn’t give him the points he lost or the wins he’s now lost.
“It doesn’t change that there is a winner sticker on his door top that I told him about that makes a bad day like this not matter as much to them,” Buescher said. “But it still matters to us. That was a major cost to us today, not only for a win, but to finish second to last from a flat tire.
“Thank god we had some good stage points today but him saying sorry doesn’t fix it.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.