Chris Buescher Conquers Road America, Wins in Last Lap ARCA Scramble

(ELKHART LAKE, Wis.) – The inaugural SCOTT 160 was a memorable one at Road AmericaSaturday, as defending ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards champion Chris Buescher passed two cars on the last lap to take the checkered flag.

“It was pretty wild, for sure,” Buescher said. “I think this shows how deserving we were of our championship last year.”

Buescher, in the Roulo Brothers No. 99 BeavEx-Reliance Tool Ford, capitalized on a last-lap tangle between the two cars in front of him, Chase Elliott and Andrew Ranger, to take the lead on turn five of the 14-turn road course. He then held on for the victory.

The field restarted with three laps to go after the only full-course caution of the race. Elliott, in the No. 9 Aaron’s-Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet, came in contact with Austin Dillon’s car, causing Dillon to spin off course in turn one. Then, Elliott and Ranger battled side-by-side and exchanged the lead back and forth over the last lap. The two cars then came in contact in turn five and Buescher, running third, passed both.

“You could definitely see it happening, pretty much right from the restart,” Buescher said. “My spotter told me on the radio to be patient. I just didn’t want to get involved.”

Ranger finished second in the No. 53 WM Bagster Dodge, with Tom Hessert trailing in third in the No. 77 Cunningham Motorsports Barbera’s Autoland Dodge. Elliott recovered to finish fourth with Ryan Blaney finishing fifth in the No. 22 Cunningham Motorsports Dodge. Dillon, in Ken Schrader’s No. 52 Drive4COPD Chevrolet, regrouped and coasted around to finish sixth, the last car on the lead lap.

Elliott and Ranger exchanged the lead early on before Dillon took the lead on lap 16 of the 40-lap, 160-mile race. Dillon built a lead of more than 20 seconds and looked to be headed to victory lane before the only full-course caution of the race flew with just seven laps remaining. Most of the front-runners pitted, including Dillon, who maintained the lead coming off pit road. When racing resumed with just a few laps to settle it, the leaders got three-wide when Elliott and Dillon touched headed into turn one.

Elliott, who earned the SCOTT Rookie Challenge of the Race award, attributed the outcome to making a mistake.

“I’m pretty disappointed to be honest with you,” Elliott said. “I always talk about having mistake-free days and today I didn’t have that.”

Ranger, who won the Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell, said he and Elliott just were just driving hard for the win.

“We banged a little bit with the No. 9 car,” Ranger said. “When we came to the turn, I broke really, really late and he broke too much. I tried to not hit him. … I think something leaked on my car. I was spinning like crazy at the end.”

Hessert was pleased with his finish. His weekend started with a crash during a test session on Thursday and the team had to go to a backup car, which, he said, caused the team to “struggle.” He rebounded from a pit road penalty to grab third and move a little closer to the top of the series point’s race.

“It was a good finish, a decent point’s day,” Hessert said.

He said he could see the leaders banging on each other and waited for his opportunity to move closer to the front.

“When the late race caution flew, I knew it was going to be pretty intense out there,” Hessert said.

Series point leader Frank Kimmel finished seventh in the No. 44 Ansell-Menards Toyota; Justin Boston, in his road course debut, was eighth in the No. 25 ZLOOP Computer & Electronics Recycling Toyota. David Levine, in only his second ARCA start, finished a career-best ninth in the No. 43 Richard Petty Driving Experience Dodge, and Mason Mingus finished 10th in the No. 32 811 Call Before You Dig Toyota.

Buescher was making just his second start of the season in the ARCA Racing Series. It was his 10th all-time series victory and first on a road course.

“We spent most of the race trying to conserve our stuff, not use up our brakes, not miss-shift and not mess up,” Buescher said. “… When that caution came out it was just about perfect for what we needed.

“They hit each other four or five times the last couple of laps. We knew it was as matter of time. I didn’t want to get right up under them.”

Buescher said he saved his best for the end of the race. The strategy worked perfectly.

“That way, when we did come down to the end, we could run as hard as we wanted.”

The ARCA Racing Series announced after the race that it had reached an agreement with NBC Sports to televise four upcoming races on the NBC Sports Network. The first of those races will be next week, with the running of the Herr’s Chase The Taste 200 at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway, on Sunday, June 30.

The official finish for Saturday’s SCOTT 160 at Road America for ARCA Racing Series stock cars with starting position in parenthesis, driver, hometown, type of car, laps completed, and reason out of race, if any: