After an eighth place finish at Kansas Speedway, where he infamously missed out on winning just one year prior by the closest losing margin in NASCAR Cup Series history, Chris Buescher's recent frustration at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Kansas City, Kansas oval continued back in mid-May.
Buescher's No. 17 Ford was found to be in violation of Sections 14.1.C (overall assembled vehicle rules) and 14.5.4.G (front bumper cover) of the NASCAR Rule Book, as the team was found to have gone over the maximum reinforcement allowed for its front bumper covers.
This resulted in a 60-point penalty being handed to Buescher, a penalty which took him from inside the provisional playoff picture to well on the outside looking in. RFK Racing appealed, and it resulted in the reinstatement of 30 of those 60 points. He was also docked five playoff points.
As it turns out, Buescher ended up being the top driver below the playoff cut line by the time the regular season ended. He finished the regular season in 10th place in the point standings, but he was 17th in the playoff picture, 32 points behind Hendrick Motorsports' Alex Bowman for the 16th and final postseason spot.
Had NASCAR not penalized Buescher, he would have been just two points behind Bowman.
Sure, he still would have missed the postseason. But let's say, for instance, that the 30 points he lost from the Kansas infraction actually did end up making the difference. How would things look now?
First and foremost, Buescher won two regular season stages, and had he beaten Bowman on points, his ninth place regular season finish would have netted him an additional two playoff points, putting him at four to start the playoffs (and thus 2,004 points post-reset).
He racked up 90 points in the three round of 16 playoff races with an incredibly consistent run (P10, P9, P11), and that would have been more than enough to advance to the round of 12.
Bowman didn't advance to begin with, so had he missed the playoffs, Buescher's inclusion would have knocked out Team Penske's Austin Cindric, leaving Cindric on the outside looking in with Richard Childress Racing's Austin Dillon, Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen, and Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry.
Buescher endured a rough start to the round of 12 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, scoring no stage points and only 19 total points with an 18th place finish, so even had he gotten in, he'd only be sitting at 3,023 points entering this weekend's race at Kansas. That would place him 24 points below the round of 8 cut line.
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter; Buescher did miss the playoffs, and he still would have fallen two points shy had NASCAR not penalized him in mid-May.
But if he's able to make amends for recent Kansas races and secure a win this weekend, which is something he did in 2024's playoff race at Watkins Glen International despite not being in the playoffs (also due to a very narrow points deficit), it will only add to the theme of "what could have been" for the driver of the No. 17 Ford in 2025 – and more specifically, at Kansas.
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