Chris Buescher admitted he had a brief moment of concern when Shane van Gisbergen approached him in victory lane after the “Go Bowling at the Glen” race on Sunday.
Buescher had secured the win after van Gisbergen made a slight mistake in the final stretch, but there was some contact between the two during the pass.
After the win, Buescher felt a bit nervous when he saw van Gisbergen, who stands at 6’2″ and is one of the tallest and more imposing drivers in NASCAR, heading toward him.
“Yeah, I didn’t feel like there was anything dirty about it,” Buescher told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass after the race. “I didn’t expect him to be mad, but that’s the one guy out here that’s bigger than me, so if he did look upset, I’d probably take notice, right?”
Buescher laughed it off, relieved that there were no hard feelings after the race. It made sense, as van Gisbergen had made a significant mistake in the final overtime, slightly hitting a wall and losing enough speed for Buescher to pass him.
That’s why Buescher was fairly confident there wouldn’t be any issues in victory lane and that van Gisbergen was coming over to offer his congratulations.
“I thought so. I didn’t feel like anything was dirty at the end,” Buescher said. “We talked about it—there was some pushing and shoving on both sides, but ultimately, he made a big error going into the bus stop, and we just had to be aggressive to take advantage of it.”
Pockrass’s question did give Buescher a moment to reflect. He acknowledged that other drivers might feel similarly about him when they see him approaching after a race.
“On the flip side, I’m sure others don’t like seeing me either,” Buescher said with a smile. “So, I appreciated him coming over and saying it was a good race. I felt like it was really competitive, and we raced hard, but there was nothing out of the ordinary, just good, clean racing at the end.”
