James Buescher wins wild Truck Series Chicagoland 225

James Buescher had quite the eventful weekend, but responded by winning the American Ethanol 225 Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night.
In review, Buescher qualified a mediocre 11^th, went two laps down due to a carburetor change on lap 81, got both of his laps back, and finally defeated the streaking Timothy Peters and Brendan Gaughan on a restart with three laps to go to win his third Camping World Truck Series race this season.
As exhausting as that must sound, multiply it by 10 for what Buecher must have felt with 100 laps to go. And yet, Buescher and his Turner Motorsports crew never gave up. They persevered and won one of the most dramatic races, from any discipline, of the 2012 season.
The last two restarts, and the laps that followed provided everything the Truck Series was built on, including a side-by-side battle for the lead on the last lap between Buescher and Peters who couldn’t clear each other until the exit of turn 2. Meanwhile, a race-dominant Gaughan struggled to hold third on the restart, but muscled his way to second a lap later and appeared to have the fastest car coming to the checkered flag.

Gaughan held on to finish second but is still looking for his ninth Truck Series win and first since 2003 at Texas. Peters finished third, with Matt Crafton and Parker Kligerman completing the top-five.
By intermediate track standards, Saturday’s race was one of the best of the season. The mixture of well-timed cautions, continuous side-by-side battles, many of them for the lead, showcased the best of what the Camping World Truck Series has to offer.
The timing for such a race couldn’t have been better, as the Truck Series was sharing center stage with the Nationwide Series on a Sprint Cup off-week. Many fans undoubtedly gave the Truck Series a look-see and had to have liked what they saw.
A full-field rundown, updated championship standings, and a video can be found after the jump!

While I have the time and space, I’d like to give a shoutout to my Mobile International Speedway boss and Truck Series veteran Rick Crawford who came home 11^th and was recognized during the broadcast for being the all-time laps completed leader in the Camping World Truck Series.

He was setting himself up for a potential top-10 finish, running as high as seventh before the final restart and ensuing last lap accident. The 11^th is still an admirable finish for the former five-time Series race-winner making just his third start of the season.

Way to go boss man!

Despite coming up two positions short, Peters maintained a 23-point championship lead over Ty Dillon, who finished 12^th. Dillon’s deficit is the largest yet for any second-place contender this season. Justin Lofton is third, 30 points out while Buscher is fourth, cutting his margin to 35 points behind Peters.

[Read More: Updated NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship Standings]

The Truck Series will take a week off before returning to freshly-paved Pocono International Raceway on Aug. 4. Speed will have flag-to-flag coverage starting at approximately 12:30 p.m. EST.

Audiovisual

Final Laps: Buescher is the soul man (via TheOfficialNASCAR)

Post-Race Reactions: American Ethanol 225 (via TheOfficialNASCAR)

Race Results