Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Weeks after winning his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Chris Buescher vaulted to inside the top-30 in driver points with a gratifying fifth-place finish in Sunday’s postponed Bass Pro Shops NRA Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
The driver on loan from Roush Fenway Racing to Front Row Motorsports used his best starting position of the season as traction for 500 laps in Thunder Valley.
Buescher’s team led by veteran crew chief Greg Osborne held their own under the lights Saturday night before Mother Nature invaded the speedway and forcing the postponement until late Sunday afternoon. Playing their cards right and avoiding late race attrition, Buescher challenged Austin Dillon for fourth, but settled for fifth when the checkered flag waved.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Buescher. “It’s been a long time since we’ve come to the race track and enjoy it like that. We had awesome speed out of our Love’s Ford Fusion. I’m really proud of the team. This thing was good from the start of the weekend. We kept working our way up towards the end and got to the top five, and almost got one there at the end, but I love Bristol. I absolutely love this race track. What they did with the surface worked out really well and made for some really good racing.”
With his second top-ten finish of the season, Buescher unofficially climbed to 30th in points leaving him 13 points in the good to David Ragan as he bids to make his first Chase for the Sprint Cup with three races remaining in regular season regulation.
“I don’t know exactly where we’re at quite yet, but I know we had to get there,” he said. “That’s Chase eligibility in one race out of the four we had to do it. Now, we have to hold onto it. I’m really proud of this team. Our Love’s Ford Fusion had great speed this weekend. We’re looking forward to the next handful of races.
“We’ve got some really good tracks for us coming up. We knew Bristol would be a good one for us. It took us a day later to do it, but we got ourselves a top-five and had a blast out here. That was an awesome run.”
Buescher’s performance was the sixth top-five finish for car owner Bob Jenkins in 715 races.
With the taste of competing for their first car Sprint Cup Series championship, Jenkins along with the support of Ford and Roush Fenway are upping the ante for Buescher and proving that even with pressure riding, the 2015 NASCAR XFINITY Series champion can deliver.
“The great thing is Ford Performance has been committed from the start,” added Buescher. “They’ve gone through a lot of changes in the last little bit, and they’ve been all in. They made it very clear at the beginning of the season talking with everybody over there that we’re out here to win a championship and to get wins and run up front, and that’s the goal for every Ford out there on the racetrack.
“We come to these next handful of races, and obviously, we have a really good shot at making the Chase now. We’re working hard to utilize every resource available now and make sure that we take advantage of it to make sure that we make the Chase because that’s ultimately that’s a step in the direction of a championship. Like Ricky (Stenhouse) was saying, from the Ford camp side, we know we’ve got a little bit of work to do yet, and we all know who’s been dominant at all these tracks this year, and we’re working to get ahead of that group.
“As we look at these the rest of the year, I mean, it’s not just to the Chase, we’ve got to work all the way through Homestead to keep improving to make sure that we’re in a good spot to try and win championships, win more races, and definitely be ready for next year to give it everything we’ve got to be more competitive from the very start of the season.”
Second-place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. noted of Buescher’s finish and how elated he was to see the success being transparent on track with race results after a rough start to the season.
“It’s awesome to start seeing it paying off,” said Stenhouse. “I know they were struggling at the beginning of the year. Chris is a great race car driver. He showed that in the XFINITY Series. I think the time in the car every week and getting better with working with Bob, this is the first year working with him as a crew chief, they’re very, very integrated into our processes. It starts at the top. Everybody at Roush Fenway has been working hard to improve what we’re coming to the track with, and that goes down to the 34 team, as well.”
The Plano, Texas native returns to Michigan International Speedway next weekend where the 23-year-old scored a 20th place finish in June.