NASCAR: Buescher gains on top-30 despite crash

Chris Buescher had put himself on the cusp of cracking the top 30 of the Sprint Cup championship standings and the NASCAR playoff grid but a crash in the closing laps of Sunday's race at Watkins Glen International delayed the accomplishment for at least another week.

The winner of last week's race at Pocono, Buescher was running inside the top 25 when he was caught up in a crash with Kevin Harvick and David Ragan. With his car stall on the track during the red flag, NASCAR requested that Buescher exit the car but doing so would require a trip to the infield car center.

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At first, he resisted but ultimately agreed with the field under red flag conditions. He was back in his towed car before race resumed and only lost one lap before finished 30th.

"That is not how we expected that one to go," Buescher said. "We got down to it at the end and we were racing through the Bus Stop and come out of it and I am not sure exactly who, but a couple guys went through the dirt and caused a wall that we couldn't see through. I came through the other side of it and (Harvick) was sitting there backwards. I tried to get down to avoid it and hooked the splitter in the mud, tucked it up under, and we got stuck.

"So I was trying to get it pushed off where we could drive back around but had to get out and go through all that."

Since Ragan was also involved in the crash and finished 33rd, Buescher actually gained three points on his personal cutoff to make the Chase for the Championship.