Buescher Brings the NCWTS Heat in a Convincing UNOH 225 Kentucky Speedway Victory

[media-credit name=”Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”252″][/media-credit]Turner Motorsports driver collects his second career Kentucky Speedway victory

SPARTA, Ky. – James Buescher brought the heat on a steamy Kentucky Speedway night and scored his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) victory at the facility by leading 119 of 150 laps while guiding his No. 31 Turner Motorsports machine to a 3.805-seconds UNOH 225 victory ahead of Brad Keselowski’s No. 19 Brad Keselowski Racing ride.

Buescher posted the fourth-widest NCWTS margin of victory in Kentucky Speedway history and became the 12th different series race winner in the 14th all-time series event at the track. He earned his second career Kentucky Speedway victory after claiming a 150-mile ARCA Racing Series win on May 9, 2009.

“I’m just really proud of everyone on the Turner Motorsports Team.  My wife told me this morning she found a picture of the trophy on Twitter and told me she wanted it and you gotta make the wife happy so we got to Victory Lane.”

Buescher took the lead for the third and final time on Lap 108, survived a restart seven laps later and pulled away from an entertaining battle for position between Keselowski and third-place driver Ty Dillon in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing truck.

“I’m just really proud of everyone on the Turner Motorsports Team. My wife told me this morning she found a picture of the trophy on Twitter and told me she wanted it. You gotta make the wife happy so we got to Victory Lane,” Buescher said after taking his second NCWTS victory of the season and first since April 21 at Kansas Speedway. He owns a combined four top-five and five top-10 series finishes this season.

Keselowski picked up his first NCWTS Kentucky Speedway top-five finish in his third career series start at the venue and first since 2006. His posted his previous Kentucky-best 18th-place NCWTS finish on July 9, 2005.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Penske Racing star qualified 17th for tonight’s event and advanced to fifth place by Lap 30. He raced through the top 10 the rest of the way before nipping Dillon at the finish line.

“I’m really pleased with the second-place effort. We just couldn’t get the speed that we needed to get all the way to the front. The truck kept coming to us. We were able to make some good moves to get to the front but just didn’t get close enough. Second is good, but I want to win so bad here. We’ll keep working on it and get better. I can’t wait to come back tomorrow and give it another shot,” said Keselowski, who will defend his 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Feed The Children 300 victory tomorrow night at the track.

Dillon also registered his first NCWTS Kentucky Speedway top-five finish tonight. He placed 18th in his series track debut on Oct. 1, 2011.

The leader in the NCWTS Rookie of the Year standings leapt into contention for a victory by racing from 10th place on Lap 100 to second on Lap 110.

“I was real happy with our performance. It has been a long day, a hot day and our guys kept digging all day. We battled from behind, almost got wrecked, and played the strategy right to get a third-place finish. I’m real happy with that.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better day, except for maybe a win. I thought we were going to have a chance at it. We were starting to run back to the leader there, but we got a little too tight. I’m excited and really happy for what it says about our team in being able to come from behind,” Dillon said.

Tonight’s UNOH 225 pole award winner Matt Crafton took fourth in the No. 88 ThorSport Racing machine and Timothy Peters completed the top five in the No. 17 Red Horse Racing truck.

Peters takes over the series championship lead with his fifth top-five and seventh top-10 finish of the season. He will head to the series July 14 event at Iowa Speedway with a four-point advantage on former leader Justin Lofton and Dillon.

Lofton rolled across the finish line 14th tonight after his No. 6 Eddie Sharp Racing truck was involved in a multiple-truck incident on Lap 70 in Turn 1 that also knocked Nelson Piquet Jr. and two-time Kentucky Speedway race winner Todd Bodine from winning contention.

“We had a really good truck. Maybe I was driving it a little harder than I should of. We got caught in a three wide situation and it really just didn’t work out for us. I hit the No. 33 (of Cale Gale), got it spinning and it got me. I guess that is fair since I got him. All in all it was a decent run for our truck. I know we lost the points, but I don’t think we lost too much ground. We are going to regroup and go to Iowa,” Lofton said.

Kentucky Speedway race action continues to tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., with the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Feed The Children 300. Keselowski is the defending race champion.

Parking lots open at 7 a.m., and gates at 9 a.m., for NNS practice. NSCS teams hit the track for the first time this weekend at 11:30 a.m., for the first of two Quaker State 400 practice sessions. Feed The Children 300 qualifying commences at 3:30 p.m., and is followed by Quaker State 400 qualifying at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets, campsites and daily infield Fan Zone passes for the Feed The Children 300 and Saturday’s Quaker State 400 can be purchased by logging on to http://www.kentuckyspeedway.com/tickets, calling 859-578-2300 or visiting the Kentucky Speedway corporate offices at 1 Speedway Drive, Sparta, Ky., 41086 just off of Interstate 71 Exit 57 and the newly-expanded, seven-lane Kentucky Highway 35.

UNOH 225 Extras:

-Matt Crafton’s fourth-place finish tonight marked his fourth career NCWTS Kentucky Speedway top-five and eighth series top-10 finish in 13 career starts since 2001. He earned career-best third place NCWTS finishes here on July 18, 2009 and July 19, 2008.

-Tonight’s race witnessed seven caution periods and 31 caution laps. The NCWTS track record for caution periods is nine from the inaugural series race on June 17, 2000. The NCWTS track record for caution laps is 49 from the same race.