Date/Time: Sunday, March 5 at 2:30 p.m.
TV Network/Radio: FOX / PRN Radio / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90
CHRIS BUESCHER QUOTES:
SPONSOR THIS WEEKEND:
“We’re highlighting a long-standing partner at JTG Daugherty Racing with our new team this weekend,” Buescher said. “We’ll have BUSH’S Beans on the No. 37 at Atlanta, and it couldn’t come at a more perfect time as the weather changes from winter to spring and NASCAR fans start firing up the grills at the racetrack with their Kingsford Charcoal. BUSH’S Beans has a new flavor coming out this spring with Honey Chipotle, one of five flavors available. The weather is going to be beautiful this weekend and we’re going to do all we can to get a top finish after 500 miles at Atlanta in the No. 37 BUSH’S Beans car.”
A UNIQUE RACETRACK:
“It was the surface,” Buescher said. “It was the fact of how it ate up tires and the pace fell off and you had to run either right on the white line or all the way at the top. Now, the only difference I can really think of is the frontstretch seems to be flatter there than some other places. Other than that, it is going to be a typical 1.5-mile track until we see what kind of character it will have now versus the repave next year.”
1.5-MILE TRACKS:
“There are a lot of racing dynamics that change when we go to 1.5-mile tracks that I’ve found,” Buescher said. “Growing up, short track racing is just different cars. You have always been a lot more aggressive with inputs. I feel like intermediate racing has changed that. It’s a lot smoother, a lot more on-throttle time, especially as we’ve taken power away.”
NEW LOW-DOWNFORCE PACKAGE:
“The good news is we are taking downforce away now to try and even take that back out,” Buescher said. “I do feel like we will have a lot of off-the-throttle time compared to where we have been. So, for me I’m excited about that. The couple of races that we ran the low-downforce package (our 2017 package now) last year, we did pretty well at. That is pretty exciting for me knowing that we were able to run well during those weekends.”
DAYTONA 500 RUN:
“We just got going in that stage and thought we were running pretty good,” Buescher said. “But it got three wide there and we were running decently there in the middle. We went down the back three wide and we got to turn three and it looked like all of a sudden, we were four wide, we just ran out of real estate. Nobody really…I don’t know. It ended up looking like something we saw the last two nights of racing. That is something we didn’t expect to happen here.”
TRENT OWENS, CREW CHIEF QUOTE:
“I’m looking forward to getting to Atlanta with our No. 37 BUSH’S Beans Chevy and really trying out the new low-downforce package,” Owens said. “Starting the season off at Daytona International Speedway is always great, but we’re really getting down to business once we get to Atlanta and work on the new rules package. We had a really good run at Daytona until we just could not avoid the wreck, and it’ll be good to get to Daytona and work on the new rules package and work on being fast off the truck on Friday for qualifying. Atlanta is a long race and it’s the last race before the repave, so tire fall-off awareness mixed with a pit strategy is going to be really important.”
Fast Facts:
Career Starts: 43
Wins: 1 (8/1/2016 Pocono Raceway)
Top-fives: 2
Top-10s: 2
Pole Awards: 0
First Start: 3/22/2015 Auto Club Speedway
First Pole: N/A
Last Pole: N/A
Best Start: 12th – 8/21/2016 Bristol
Best Finish: 1st – 8/1/2016 Pocono Raceway
Driver DOB: 10/29/1992
Hometown: Prosper, TX
Crew Chief: Trent Owens
