Chris Buescher edges Chase Elliott for XFINITY win at Iowa Speedway
Chris Buescher took on two tires and then took off on the final restart to edge Chase Elliott for the XFINITY Series win in a green-white-chckered finish at Iowa Speedway on Sunday.
"That was awesome," Buescher said.
Elliott, who led a race-high 114 laps and had been half a lap from winning the race in regulation when Jamie Dick brought out the final caution by hitting the wall with two laps to go, was forced to settle for second.
Erik Jones finished third, with Brian Scott and Ryan Blaney rounding out the top five.
But it was Buescher who won after leading 95 laps. He came down pit road and took two tires while Elliott and Ryan Reed stayed out, and then Buescher perfectly executed a dive to the bottom of the racetrack to pass both Elliott and Reed on the final restart.
"That was nerve-wracking at the end," Buescher told FOX Sports in Victory Lane. "We just had to have something fall our way, and it did. We got those tires on there and were able to get going on that restart."
The victory also gives Buescher the series points lead by eight points over Ty Dillon, who was having a strong run on Sunday, too, but had it ruined by a tire going down with 10 laps left in regulation.
"That's hard to swallow, but Chris did a great job so congrats to him," said Elliott, who is third in the series points standings, 31 behind Buescher. "I felt like we did a good job all weekend, too. We were fast and one of the better cars all weekend, so that's something to be proud of and we're excited about that.
"If we can continue to run like we did today, we'll have other opportunities."
Yet Elliott knew he was a sitting duck on old tires on the green-white-checkered finish Sunday.
"You just try to hang in there the best you can and not wreck, really," Elliott said. "You want to try to get a good run and stay out front, but those guys are coming so hard on fresher tires so you end up just salvaging what you can."
Buescher admitted the final restart fell his way.
"It went even better than we hoped it would," Buescher said. "We knew the front row had older tires, so it came out really well for us. We were able to get to the bottom and get by them and just drive away."
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