The raw emotion remains within Roush Fenway Racing after teammates Chris Buescher and Darrell Wallace Jr. made contact fighting for the win during Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Dover International Speedway.
Roush teammates Chris Buescher, Darrell Wallace Jr. not ready to move past Dover incident
Buescher and Wallace need more time to get over their incident stemming from the finish of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.
“We’ve got to cool down a little bit,” Buescher said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Wallace, who’s never won an Xfinity race, was leading when Buescher attempted to pass him with less than 10 laps to go. But as Buescher got to the inside of Wallace, he drifted up and into his teammate. Buescher would go on to win his third series race and second in three weeks, while Wallace cut a tire due to the damage sustained and finished 17th.
Afterward, Wallace didn’t hide his frustration.
“Chris just ran over me and he ends up winning,” Wallace said. “It should be interesting Monday morning. We just got run over. It sucks that it was my teammate.
“I didn’t think I was holding him tight and the next thing you know we are almost in the fence. I would say I am happy Roush won, but I am not.”
As Wallace predicted, Roush’s weekly Monday competition meeting was full of tension.
When asked Tuesday by Sirius host Chocolate Myers if the meeting was “awkward,” Buescher said he wouldn’t use that word, but explained things didn’t play out “as smooth as we wanted it to go” and time was needed to let emotions subside.
“I’ve tried to express my view on the situation,” Buescher said. “It’s just too soon. We’ve got an off weekend to go relax a little bit and we’ll come back to it and we’ll get it resolved before Michigan. It’s still fresh in everyone’s mind. I think both of us have opinions on what went on, and I don’t think we agree completely with the situation.
“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. Not ideal. I hate it went the way it did.”
In his second full year, Buescher is the only Xfinity series regular with more than one victory this season and is atop the point standings. He maintains a six-point lead over second-place Ty Dillon. Wallace, a rookie, is ranked fifth.
NASCAR’s No. 2 division is off until the June 13 at Michigan International Speedway.
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