Chris Buescher points finger at himself after P2 finish at Michigan

Chris Buescher is still searching for his first win of the season in 2025. However, he came close at Michigan, coming home as the runner-up to Denny Hamlin.

If Buescher had a couple more laps, perhaps his No. 17 Ford could’ve caught Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota. It wasn’t meant to be, but the performance was still more than encouraging for Buescher and his team. He spoke on the result following the race on Sunday.

“That was such a fast Mustang,” Buescher stated, via NBC Sports. “I really appreciate everybody on this team working so hard to put us in this situation and to have a chance to win. I’m disappointed I didn’t get it done. It’s on me. I had a couple different decisions I would love to go back and make and ultimately should have had us ahead of the No. 11. We were faster on the day and I didn’t do a good enough job.

“We’ll certainly take the good with it. We certainly need a little bit of good luck or fortune on our side. This is a day where we kind of made our own. We were really fast and worked hard to be there and just didn’t have any bad luck, so that put us with a shot to win.

“After the last handful of weeks with having speed in the first stage and qualifying and not being able to get the race finish that was certainly big, but it’s frustrating to be that close and to know that we had a car that was capable of winning. I just needed to do a better job.”

While Buescher’s season has been a bit uneven, he’s still managed to put himself in a great position to make the playoffs, ranked No. 12 overall in the Cup Series point standings. He has seven top tens in 15 races, along with two top fives and one DNF.

On the other hand, Buescher’s only led 15 laps, and that win has been elusive so far this season. He’s far from guaranteed to make the playoffs without one, as he learned in 2024. That’s why he’s not satisfied with his second-place finish this past weekend.

Moving forward, Chris Buescher will have the opportunity to get to Victory Lane at a myriad of different tracks, beginning with this weekend’s trip to Mexico City. He’s still flying a bit under the radar, but the RFK Racing wheelman is a threat to win week-in and week-out, and he seems to have found his groove.