Ahead of home race at Texas, Chris Buescher still feeling burn of Talladega runner-up

On the heels of a runner-up finish in the April 26 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, Chris Buescher almost wishes he had finished third instead. 

"If it's gonna be that close, you almost just wish it wouldn't have been [second]," Buescher, a native of Prosper, Texas, said in a Saturday news conference at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. "To be in the hunt for it and come up just that little bit short, it definitely hurts at the end of the day."

Buescher lost what was essentially a drag race to race winner Carson Hocevar, who scored his first career Cup Series win and also won the pole for Sunday's race at Texas. 

Chris Buescher still chasing Texas success

The second-place effort for Buescher and the No. 17 team did move him up to seventh in the series standings, though the loss was still a heartbreaking one. 

"When you go speedway racing, that drag race to the end, you almost feel like you have a little less control over your own destiny," Buescher said. "But it still stings, for sure. Solid day for our entire group. We did everything right on the day."

Buescher has five top 10 finishes through the first 10 races of 2026 and will start third in Sunday's Wurth 400 at Texas (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He's yet to finish top 10 at his home track in 16 starts. 

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.