Tensions were high during the final regular season race of the 2024 Cup Series season at Darlington as drivers made one final bid for a Playoff berth. Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 NASCAR Ford Mustang Dark Horse, was barely below the cutline to make the Round of 16, but he found himself tangled up with fellow Blue Oval driver Todd Gilliland on Lap 323. The two racers made contact that sparked retaliation, but NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer decided to withhold penalties for the incident.
Sawyer spoke about the incident on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, according to a report from Sports Illustrated. Buescher and Gilliland, who drives the No. 38 Mustang, were racing alongside each other for position when Gilliland washed up the track and slammed into Buescher’s race car. Buescher was forced into the outside wall and sharply pulled his No. 17 Mustang back down the race track, ramming Gilliland’s No. 38 Mustang and causing him to spin.
Gilliland finished 17th with his damaged race car, while Buescher continued on to finish sixth. Because Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mustang, won the race and stole a Playoff berth, Buescher found himself knocked out of the title fight.
“You look at Darlington, it’s tight. It’s hard racing, we’ve said that for years,” Sawyer said. “I don’t want our fans to get in a position thinking that we’re going to be over-officiating our races, as far as contact. We’re a contact sport, it’s in our DNA. What happened at Richmond, happened at Richmond, and we responded to that. We want our racing to be organic, we want them to go out and race hard, so we didn’t see anything that crossed the line.”
The contact between Buescher and Gilliland, while frustrating for both drivers, was minor compared to a recent incident involving a NASCAR Ford driver. Joey Logano was on the receiving end of Austin Dillon, who turned Logano to win at Richmond. Dillon was heavily penalized for intentionally wrecking competitors.
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