Monster Mile race winner hopes to find common ground with Wallace Jr.
MORE: Bubba on Buescher: ‘We’re not shaking hands yet’ | See what happened late at Dover
Three days after ruffling feelings and fenders in his NASCAR XFINITY Series victory last weekend, Chris Buescher said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the raw emotions between himself and teammate Darrell Wallace Jr. still need time to cool before the two drivers see eye to eye.
Buescher, appearing on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “Tradin’ Paint” program, said that late-race contact between the two at Dover International Speedway made for an unusual team meeting earlier this week at Roush Fenway Racing.
“I don’t know if awkward’s the word,” Buescher said, “but obviously not as smooth as we’d want it to go.”
Buescher and Wallace — both racing on similar pit-stop and fuel conservation strategies — bumped twice as they contested the lead with nine laps remaining in Saturday’s Buckle Up 200. Buescher drove away after the contact to score his second XFINITY win of the season, but pole-starter Wallace slowed with a flat tire and faded to a 17th-place finish, three laps down.
“When you come down to the end and you have two cars with the same organization with a chance to win a race, and both on similar strategies, it gets a little rough sometimes,” said Buescher, an XFINITY winner in two of the last three races. “Not ideal, and I hate that it went the way it did. And honestly, I had no clue that some of the things that happened after the contact happened, so that’s a shame. We were both in contention and both had fast race cars for the day.”
Wallace expressed his displeasure with abrupt, measured comments to reporters on pit road after the race. Buescher, meanwhile, said in Saturday’s post-race news conference that he hoped to talk out the incident with his teammate on the plane ride back to North Carolina.
RELATED: Post-race tension caused by teammate tussle
Tuesday on SiriusXM, Buescher indicated that the two have yet to find common ground, but that he hoped they could resolve their differences before the series’ next race, June 13 at Michigan International Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).
“We’ve got to cool down a little bit is where it stands,” Buescher said. “I’ve tried to express my view on the situation and I think it’s just too soon. Once we get everything calmed down, we’ve got an off weekend to go relax a little bit and we’ll come back to it and get it resolved before Michigan, but it’s still fresh on everyone’s mind. And I think both of us have opinions on what went on and I don’t know that we agree completely with the situation, but we’ll get it figured out.
“It’s part of racing and part of having as many teammates as we do over at Roush Fenway. You’re going to run into situations every now and then, and unfortunately, it’s part of it and we’re going to try to right the situation as quickly as possible.”
Wallace appeared on FOX Sports 1’s “Race Hub” program Monday, saying that he had not shaken hands and mended fences with Buescher yet.
“Just good thing there’s a week off,” Wallace said. “Got time to settle down and refocus back on the big picture.”