Racing in the Daytona 500 is an honor and a dream for racers across the world. However, urgent family matters can take higher priority at times. For Chris Buescher, it wasn’t a dilemma to begin with. The #17 Ford driver had to opt out of the Daytona practice session after receiving the news of his wife Emma, delivering their baby. Revealing the outcome of his unsuccessful haste, the 31-year-old revealed that despite his best efforts, he couldn’t make it back to North Carolina on time.

Chris Buescher was replaced by RFK Racing‘s comeback hero, David Ragan, who served a double shift in the #17 and #60 Fords. Buescher had hoped for a less hectic start to the season and more prep to defend his Daytona title. Having won the previous year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, Buescher had entered the race with a great form on the superspeedway. Owing to the ‘Big One’ with 8 laps to go, the #17 driver limped to a P18 finish.

Chris Buescher had the news of his baby boy’s birth in advance

While Buescher had a relatively quiet outing at Daytona with not much action on the front row, his teammates enjoyed their fair share of it. Ragan went as high as P2 in the second stage, while Brad Keselowski remained in the top 5 for a fair amount of time before being collected in the 192nd lap crash. Coming into the practice sessions with the news of his baby’s arrival on his mind, Chris Buescher didn’t expect it to happen before the due date of 2nd March.

“We understood that it was going to be tricky. But this was not the due date, it was March 2nd, way further along than this. So this was a little bit of a surprise and it turned into a bit of chaos there on Wednesday or Thursday morning. I knew she was headed to the hospital a couple of weeks before the Duel and I did get that phone call.”

“She said, ‘Hey, I’m headed to the hospital. You might want to think about getting home and I feel like this could be a possibility. So made arrangements, got through,” said Chris Buescher on RFK Racing’s show ‘Backstretch Banter’.

Disclosing the gravity of the situation, Buescher revealed that by the time he reached the hospital to his wife and daughter, the bundle of joy had already taken his first breath.

“We got Duel 1 unfortunately and as soon as the Duel was over, I hopped on the plane back home with a lot of the pit crew members from the first Duel. We landed back and I jumped in the truck. I was flying down the road. I called her to check where she was at. Well, you don’t have to rush, he’s here but come on down. So yeah it wasn’t quite going to make it there. It happened quick.”

Moving ahead with the conversation, Chris Buescher confirmed that missing the Daytona practice session was his only option and despite being an unexpected delivery, it was conducted smoothly and both mother and son are in good health.

Buescher confirms his wife and baby’s wellbeing

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One of the many reasons for fans’ grievances toward the Daytona 500 was the lack of practice races before the qualifying session. While that would have appeased the fans, it would have made Chris Buescher’s return home harder. Considering NASCAR went with the fans’ demands, a substitute driver would have been required to fill for Buescher in the Duel.

Revealing the delay in his arrival to North Carolina, Buescher claimed, “Almost 2 hours. So there was really no way other than skipping the Duel that I truly have made it. But we did not anticipate him being born that quickly.”

Most importantly, he disclosed that the situation was under control and his family was ready to move out of the hospital. He said, “He was healthy, she was healthy and we were able to spend those couple of days in the hospital, get everybody situated.”

While the Daytona 500 main event brought some unwanted hiccups into Chris Buescher’s season, the build-up to it was quite the confidence boost. Entering Atlanta as a father of two, the 31-year-old will hope to add some more good news in successive weeks.

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