Chris Buescher Makes Last-Lap Pass on Shane Van Gisbergen; Plays Playoff Spoiler at Watkins Glen

When it comes to road course racing, Shane Van Gisbergen doesn't make a ton of mistakes. However, one on the final lap of Sunday's Go Bowling at The Glen ended up costing the Auckland, New Zealand native his second NASCAR Cup Series victory.

On the race's final lap, as the No. 16 WeatherTech Chevrolet made a major lunge into the interloop on the race's final lap, Van Gisbergen made a miscalculation, making slight contact with the Armco barrier at the entrance to the tricky set of corners.

From that contact, momentum was lost, and Chris Buescher was able to close directly to the rear bumper of the three-time Supercars champion, jamming his No. 17 Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the inside in the carousel and taking the race lead and ultimately the victory.

As the pair raced back to the start-finish line, Van Gisbergen was doing everything in his power to recover the lead, sliding sideways and nearly wrecking his car multiple times in the final seconds of the event, crossing the line nearly a second behind the No. 17.

"I thought we lost it there on that last one," Buescher said post-race. "Just, man, to stay right there with him, that was the spot that he was better than us. He missed it. He missed it, so I tried to cross over. Went to cut and just hard race there. Just such an awesome finish. To be that good for so much at the end of the race, all race, to get a win, it's good. We came here to be a spoiler. We're going to do that where."

After surging to the front of the field on new tires past the halfway point, Buescher was able to remain in contention as green-flag stops cycled through and returned to the lead, only to have to endure several NASCAR Overtime restarts.

When the dust settled in NASCAR Overtime, Buescher captured his sixth NASCAR Cup Series victory, while Shane Van Gisbergen was left to finish runner-up, his second top-five result in his 10-race career in NASCAR's premier series.

"Driver error," said Van Gisbergen. "I knew Chris was really going to send it and push me if he could get there. As I turned and got a bit loose and clipped the inside wall and driver error. I'm gutted."

Rookie of The Year contender Carson Hocevar finished in third place, scoring his first-ever top-five in the NASCAR Cup Series. Ross Chastain came home in fourth, after leading a race-high 51 laps, sliding back after green-flag stops.

Zane Smith finished in fifth place, scoring his second top-five result of his rookie season with Spire Motorsports. Chase Briscoe was the highest-finishing playoff-eligible driver in sixth place.

Michael McDowell came home in seventh, with Corey LaJoie being the worst finishing of the three Spire Motorsports drivers in eighth. Ryan Preece and Austin Cindric rounded out the top-10.

The event was tough on multiple NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs drivers, with only two (Briscoe and Cindric) finishing inside the top-10.

Kyle Larson (12th), Daniel Suarez (13th), Christopher Bell (14th), Joey Logano (15th), Alex Bowman (18th), Chase Elliott (19th), Martin Truex, Jr. (20th), Ty Gibbs (22nd), Denny Hamlin (23rd), Harrison Burton (24th), Brad Keselowski (26th), Tyler Reddick (27th), William Byron (34th), and Ryan Blaney (38th) were the 10 post-season eligible drivers that finished 12th or worse.

The event featured seven cautions for a total of 21 laps, which aided in pushing the race two laps past its scheduled distance, and had 11 lead changes among nine different drivers.

Of the multiple late-race yellows, the first was caused by debris in Turn 6, courtesy of Harrison Burton. Things just spiraled from there, with a bizarre accident involving Brad Keselowski and William Byron, where the No. 24 landed in the window of the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion, and another incident involving several post-season drivers.

Leaving Watkins Glen, the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs head to Bristol for the first elimination race of 2024, with Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric leading the NASCAR Cup Series point standings.

Photo: Brian Smith, TobyChristie.com