Kevin Harvick calls out Chris Buescher: 'That's a bunch of sh*t'

Chris Buescher is one of several drivers near the playoff cutline with just two regular season races remaining.

Points are a premium for drivers such as Buescher who haven’t gotten to Victory Lane this season and yet, the RFK Racing driver said repeatedly this past weekend at Michigan that he wasn’t paying too close of attention to points and his place in the standings. Kevin Harvick had a massive problem with that, he said on Tuesday’s “Happy Hour” podcast.

Harvick, who was on that playoff cutline last season, said you need to know everything and if you don’t, “you’re not paying attention.” He referred to Buescher’s interview with NBC Sports as a “bunch of sh*t.”

“You have to keep points in mind,” Harvick said. “These guys will all tell you — I heard Chris Buescher say it a hundred times this weekend, ‘Ah, we’re just out here trying to win, we’re trying to do this.’ That’s a bunch of sh*t. You are not out there — you know exactly — if you don’t, it’s your own fault that you don’t know who you’re racing. Need to know exactly who you’re racing, how many points ahead they are, how many points behind you are, if you’re in position to go out and score stage points, how many stage points you can score. You need to know every freaking thing that’s going on.

“So, I don’t like hearing all that BS because you need to know. That’s an easy excuse to try to get out of an interview but that’s the most nonsense answer that I’ve ever heard in my life. You know all the scenarios and if you don’t, you’re not paying attention.”

Chris Buescher on the playoff bubble heading into Daytona

Buescher entered Michigan just one point clear of Ross Chastain for the 16th and final playoff spot. Despite the small margin, Buescher said he wasn’t focused on “all the points side of things.”

“I’m definitely not your guy to sit here and decipher all the points side of things,” Buescher said. “I go the racetrack and do our own deal. Control what we can. … You always go the racetrack and figure out how you’re gonna win this one.”

Fortunately for Buescher, Michigan turned out OK for him. He didn’t win, but he rallied from an early wreck to score a much-needed sixth place finish. Heading into Daytona this Saturday, he’s 16 points clear of the playoff cutline.

“It was a good strategy call and a good move to pit there and do something different for us. Ultimately our chance at winning this thing had gone away,” Buescher said after the race. “I had been caught up in whatever happened in that early accident, and we have damage on all four corners of this Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang.

“We were still fast, but the balance was not near as good. It was a lot of fun before that. We had a chance to win this race. So, it was a good call to do something different and take the right-side tires and we were able to pass a ton of cars. It was wild but a heck of a way to salvage a day that should have been better.”