Buescher plays spoiler at Watkins Glen in chaotic NASCAR playoff race

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — William Byron's Chevy skidded down the track and came to rest tilted against the wall with a tire jammed into Brad Keselowski's driver-side window in a late fight for position between two NASCAR playoff drivers.

Ryan Blaney never got so lucky to remain in the second playoff race long enough to gobble playoff points. The 2023 NASCAR champion was knocked out at Watkins Glen International on the opening lap Sunday, his Ford towed to the garage against his wishes.

Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Harrison Burton. The list of playoff drivers that took a beating on the track — and in the standings — dwarfed the ones that escaped the road course unscathed.

Already set to retire from full-time racing at the end of the season, Truex had seen enough of the demolition derby that sabotaged his championship push.

“I just don't understand how guys can call themselves the best in the world when they just drive through everyone on restarts at the end of the races,” Truex said. “It is what it is, these days. I'm out of here.”

With championship contenders succumbing to late wrecks, shredded tires, and aggressive driving, Chris Buescher played spoiler and won Sunday at Watkins Glen International, leading a string of five non-playoff drivers to the finish.

“We would have liked to have won a couple of weeks ago, but this is huge,” Buescher said.

The chaos on the 2.45-mile course at The Glen — in the playoffs for the first time before it returns to an August date next year — shook up the playoff standings heading into the cutoff race.

Buescher held off Shane van Gisbergen in the thrilling two final overtime laps and won for the first time this season for RFK Racing. The 31-year-old Texan, who started 24th, has six career victories.

Chase Briscoe, who entered 16th in the playoff standings and 21 points behind the cutline, was sixth and the highest-finishing playoff driver in the field in the second race in NASCAR’s postseason. Four drivers will be cut from the field Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“I did what we needed to do,” Briscoe said. “Just need to go do that same thing next week. Just hit singles and doubles. Don't do anything crazy.”

Briscoe shot to 11th in the standings, six points above the cutline. Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Truex, and Burton are the bottom four drivers.

Austin Cindric was 10th, only the second playoff driver in the top 10. Want to find the contenders? Look all the way to the bottom of the race results. Ten playoff drivers were dumped in the bottom 21 finishers.

The race was bedlam for the contenders from the start, when a wreck on the opening lap that knocked out Blaney also slowed fellow playoff drivers and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Christopher Bell.

At least 11 playoff drivers ran into some sort of issue, including a rough scene late in the race where Keselowski and Byron crashed battling for position. Byron’s Chevrolet landed on top of Keselowski’s Ford with six laps left in the scheduled 90-lap race.

There was no way this thriller wasn't going to end in regulation.

One by one, playoff drivers took a beating on the track — and in the standings.

Joey Logano raced his way into the second round of NASCAR’s playoffs by winning the opener last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He finished 15th There was no automatic qualifier at The Glen into the second round.

Bell finished 14th and holds a 46-point lead in the standings.

Kyle Larson, Byron, Briscoe and Ty Gibbs are the final four drivers above the cutline. Hamlin is six points out, Keselowski 12, Truex 14 and Burton is 20 points out of the final spot.

Blaney, the 2023 Cup champion, had his race ended on the opening lap after he was collected in a wreck that also involved playoff drivers Hamlin and Bell.

Blaney went from 45 points above the cutline to 29.

NASCAR rules dictated the No. 12 Ford must be towed to the garage, while Blaney argued his team should have been allowed to try and repair the car on pit road, giving him a shot at staying in the race.

“They didn’t give us a chance to fix it,” Blaney said. “How are they going to dictate if we are done or not? They have no idea of the damage. They said we were done because I couldn’t drive it back to the pit box, but if you have four flats, you get towed back to the pit box. You can’t drive that back. I don’t know what is going on or why they won’t give us a shot to work on it but I don’t agree with.”

NASCAR rules say cars can remain in the race for mechanical issues, not for damage.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished 32nd driving for 23XI Racing in his first Cup race in 10 years.

A two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Montoya never quite reached the heights in NASCAR that he did in his IndyCar, sports cars and Formula 1 careers. He won the Cup race at The Glen in 2010.

NASCAR heads to its playoff cutoff race at Bristol where Hamlin is the defending race winner.

“I feel like we can go there and win," Hamlin said. "We are going to an oval, back to a normal track. We can control our own destiny there.”

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Ross Chastain (#1) drives into turn one during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Watkins Glen, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Ross Chasten (1) drives into Turn One during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Watkins Glen, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Shane Van Gisbergen (16) competes during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Watkins Glen, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Ross Chasten (1) competes during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Watkins Glen, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Chase Briscoe (14) drives through the during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Watkins Glen, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Chris Buescher (17) competes in a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Watkins Glen, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Chris Buescher (17) celebrates winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Watkins Glen, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Chris Buescher (17) celebrates winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Watkins Glen, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

NEW YORK (AP) — Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people.

Both attacks, which are widely believed to be carried out by Israel, have hiked fears that the two sides’ simmering conflict could escalate into all-out war. This week's explosions have also deepened concerns about the scope of potentially-compromised devices, particularly after such bombings have killed or injured so many civilians.

Here's what we know so far.

On Tuesday, pagers used by hundreds of Hezbollah members exploded almost simultaneously in parts of Lebanon as well as Syria. The attack killed at least 12 people — including two young children — and wounded thousands more.

An American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Israel briefed the U.S. on the operation — where small amounts of explosives hidden in the pagers were detonated. The Lebanese government and Iran-backed Hezbollah also blamed Israel for the deadly explosions. The Israeli military, which has a long history of sophisticated operations behind enemy lines, declined to comment.

A day after these deadly explosions, more detonations triggered in Beirut and parts of Lebanon Wednesday — including several blasts heard at a funeral in Beirut for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by Tuesday's explosions, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.

At least nine people were killed and another 300 were wounded, the Health Ministry said, in this apparent second attack.

When speaking to troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant made no mention of the explosions of electronic devices, but praised the work of Israel's army and security agencies and said “we are at the start of a new phase in the war."

A Hezbollah official told the AP that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded on Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Lebanon’s official news agency also reported that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and in southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl.

While details are still emerging from Wednesday's attack, the second wave of explosions targeted a country that is still reeling from Tuesday's pager bombings. That attack appeared to be a complex Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah, but an enormous amount of civilian casualties were also reported, as the detonations occurred wherever members' pagers happened to be — including homes, cars, grocery stores and cafes.

Hezbollah has used pagers as a way to communicate for years. And more recently, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying they could be used by Israel to track the group’s movements.

Pagers also run on a different wireless network than mobile phones, which usually makes them more resilient in times of emergency. And for a group like Hezbollah, the pagers provided a means to sidestep what’s believed to be intensive Israeli electronic surveillance on mobile phone networks in Lebanon — as pagers' tech is simpler and carries lower risks for intercepted communications.

Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based veteran and a senior political risk analyst who says he has had conversations with members of Hezbollah and survivors of the attack, said that the newer brand of pagers used in Tuesday’s explosions were procured more than six months ago. How they arrived in Lebanon remains unclear.

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday it had authorized use of its brand on the AR-924 pager model — but that a Budapest, Hungary-based company called BAC Consulting KFT produced and sold the pagers.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said that it had no records of direct exports of Gold Apollo pagers to Lebanon. And Hungarian government spokesman later added that the pager devices had never been in Hungary, either, noting that BAC had merely acted as an intermediary.

Speculation around the origins of the devices that exploded Wednesday has also emerged. A sales executive at the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese walkie-talkie maker Icom told The Associated Press that the exploded radio devices in Lebanon appear to be a knock-off product and not made by Icom.

“I can guarantee you they were not our products,” said Ray Novak, a senior sales manager for Icom’s amateur radio division, in an interview Wednesday at a trade show in Providence, Rhode Island.

Novak said Icom introduced the V-82 model more than two decades ago and it has long since been discontinued. It was designed for amateur radio operators and for use in social or emergency communications, including by people tracking tornadoes or hurricanes, he said.

Tuesday's explosions were most likely the result of supply-chain interference, several experts told The Associated Press — noting that very small explosive devices may have been built into the pagers prior to their delivery to Hezbollah, and then all remotely triggered simultaneously, possibly with a radio signal. That corroborates information shared from the U.S. official.

A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.

“A pager has three of those already,” said the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East. “You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.”

This signals involvement of a state actor, said Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert. He added that Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, was the most obvious suspect to have the resources to carry out such an attack. Israel has a long history of carrying out similar operations in the past.

The specifics of Wednesday's explosions are still uncertain. But reports of even more electronic devices exploding may suggest even greater infiltration of boobytrap-like interferance in Lebanon’s supply chain. It also deepens concerns around the lack of certainty of who may be holding rigged devices.

It would take a long time to plan an attack of this scale. The exact specifics are still unknown, but experts who spoke with the AP about Tuesday's explosions shared estimates ranging anywhere between several months to two years.

The sophistication of the attack suggests that the culprit has been collecting intelligence for a long time, explained Nicholas Reese, adjunct instructor at the Center for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies. An attack of this caliber requires building the relationships needed to gain physical access to the pagers before they were sold; developing the technology that would be embedded in the devices; and developing sources who can confirm that the targets were carrying the pagers.

Citing conversations with Hezbollah contacts, Magnier said the group is currently investigating what type of explosives were used in the device, suspecting RDX or PETN, highly explosive materials that can cause significant damage with as little as 3-5 grams. They are also questioning whether the device had a GPS system allowing Israel to track movement of the group members.

N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services, added that “such a large-scale operation also raises questions of targeting" — stressing the number of causalities and enormous impact reported so far.

“How can the party initiating the explosive be sure that a target’s child, for example, is not playing with the pager at the time it functions?” he said.

Associated Press journalists Johnson Lai in Taipei, Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Matt O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island contributed to this report.

People donate blood for those who were injured by their exploded handheld pagers, at a Red Cross center, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)