Chris Buescher has been penalized 60 points after NASCAR officials found that his car was assembled improperly after Sunday’s race at Kansas.
Buescher’s car was taken back to the NASCAR R&D center where officials said that the car exceeded the maximum reinforcement allowed for its front bumper cover.
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Buescher finished eighth at Kansas and was 12th in the standings. He’s now much, much further down. The penalty puts Buescher in 28th in the standings and 226 points back of points leader William Byron.
In addition to the points penalty, Buescher’s No. 17 team was fined $75,000 and crew chief Scott Graves was suspended for two races.
Given the number of drivers who jumped Buescher in the standings, he’s likely facing a must-win scenario to get into the playoffs over the final 14 races of the regular season. Buescher has a top five and six top-10 finishes this season and has won five races over the past three seasons. After a win in 2022, Buescher reeled off three wins in five races in 2023. His lone victory in 2024 came at Watkins Glen after he had missed out on the playoffs.
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The penalty also exacerbates what has been a horrific season for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. Buescher was the team’s best driver this season. Now, two of the team’s drivers are outside the top 20 in points.
Ryan Preece is 18th in the standings and would be higher if he wasn’t disqualified after the Talladega race for an inspection failure. Preece finished second but was dropped to 38th because of a spoiler violation.
Team co-owner Brad Keselowski is 32nd in the standings and still 53 points behind Buescher. Keselowski has failed to score a top-10 finish this season and is only ahead of Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Shane van Gisbergen and Cody Ware among full-time drivers.
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