NASCAR playoffs: Chris Buescher, Shane van Gisbergen highlight random day at Watkins Glen

Shane van Gisbergen battling for the win Sunday at Watkins Glen shouldn’t have surprised anyone, given his great work on the road courses since taking to NASCAR last summer.

Watching him get passed and relegated to a runner-up finish also isn’t shocking, since he’s racing against some stout competition.

But Chris Buescher doing the passing for the win? Who saw that one coming? We’re no longer shocked when a non-playoff driver wins a playoff race, but Buescher?

He’s become a steady top-10 finisher on road courses the past few years, but his last road wins came 10 years ago (in Xfinity at Mid-Ohio) and 11 years ago (in ARCA at Elkhart Lake).

You look at that Glen rundown and you see the most random finishing order in the 20-year history of NASCAR playoffs .

Let’s get up to speed and try to sort things out as these topsy-turvy playoffs point toward the third and final race of the Round of 16 next weekend.

Oh, it’s at Bristol, by the way …

First Gear: Watkins Glen goes random

Time to do some math.

The NASCAR playoff system debuted in 2004. Ten races per year, over 20 years plus two playoff races of 2024 … the calculator spits out 202.

Through the first 201 races in NASCAR playoff history, you know how often the top five finishers didn’t include a playoff driver?

Zero.

Hell, Watkins Glen only saw two playoff cars in the entire top 10, and while one of them wasn’t all that surprising (Austin Cindric, who was raised on road-racin’, finished 10th) the other was Chase Briscoe, who we figured would likely hit the exit after the Round of 16.

Briscoe’s sixth-place finish was the best of the 16 playoff drivers and he went from 21 points below the cutoff to six above it. They were just starting to pick up momentum on packing the boxes over at Stewart-Haas Racing, but now they have a reason to keep the lights on and the wrenches turning.

Second Gear: SVG, Chris Buescher and push comes to shove

By the way, finishes like Sunday at the Glen will continue to sell old-school oval-track fans on the merits of inflating the road-course menu on modern Cup Series schedules.

There was a time when two each year (The Glen and Sonoma) were plenty for most fans and, frankly, two too many for some.

But how could you not wear out the edge of your recliner watching Sunday’s final restart and Buescher’s stubborn determination to stay in van Gisbergen’s mirror and throw an elbow to retake the lead through the carousel?

And hey, who doesn’t like a carousel?

Also, in watching that restart, you gotta feel for Carson Hocevar. Are there no anti-bullying laws on the books in New York? Man, talk about getting the bum’s rush. Carson might want to check his back pocket to make sure they didn’t get his wallet along the way.

Third Gear: Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski bubbling

Before packing for Bristol, let’s get an assessment of the playoff picture.

OK, who’s outside: Martin Truex (15th, 14 points below the cut) shouldn’t surprise you, and Harrison Burton (16th, 20 points down) definitely doesn’t. But Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin sitting below the 12th-place bubble? That’s odd, especially for Hamlin.

Here’s something you’ll hear a lot this week: Hamlin has won the past two races at Bristol. That’s great news for Hamlin fans, but momentum like that lasts only as long as a bad pit stop or trouble in Turn 3.

Tough to keep your ears pinned back and your head on a swivel at the same time, but such is life at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Dick Trickle once compared it to flying a jet-fighter in a high school gymnasium.

William Byron sits in 10th place, 25 points above the playoff cutline. The bubble’s boil begins immediately below him, where Briscoe and Ty Gibbs each sit six points to the good, ahead of Hamlin in 13th, and 12 ahead of Kez in 14th.

Good luck trying to keep up with this in real time Saturday night, when the laps will whiz by at a dizzying pace. Better to just enjoy the show (hopefully) and see where it all shakes out at the end.

Any chance, at this late notice, to install a carousel at Bristol?

Fourth Gear: Bought your stock in Connor Zilisch yet?

If not, you’re probably too late. We first heard chatter about Connor Z back in the winter, and soon thereafter he was part of a class-winning team in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Then he repeated at Sebring in IMSA’s next big event.

Next came the fast-tracking of his stock-car career. Wanna guess how that’s gone?

Well, in 13 starts in ARCA and the affiliated ARCA East series, he’s won nine times and never finished outside the top 5.

In two NASCAR Truck Series starts, he won the pole and finished fourth at Austin on the road course, and was crashed out at Richmond.

This past weekend at Watkins Glen, he made his Xfinity Series debut with Junior Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports, the team that will field cars for him full-time in that series next year. How’d he do? How’s it sound to win the pole and the race at The Glen?

You might wonder if he’s a road-course ringer, except eight of his nine ARCA wins have come on ovals.

It’s too early to consider what the Hendrick Motorsports lineup will shake out in 2026, but if Zilisch isn’t part of it, be surprised.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR playoffs: Chris Buescher, Shane van Gisbergen highlight random day at Watkins Glen