JTG DAUGHERTY RACING
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY ADVANCE
Event: STP 500
Date/Time: Sunday, March 25 at 2:00 PM ET
TV Network/Radio: FS1 / MRN Radio / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1
MENTAL ASPECTS OF MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY: “Martinsville Speedway is one of those racetracks where until you cross the finish line, anything can happen,” Allmendinger said. “Whether you have a great racecar or you’re struggling, if you’re in it at the end of the race you have a shot at the win. I love Martinsville Speedway, but it’s definitely an exhausting place both mentally and physically. It is one of those racetracks where mentally, you know up until the last lap anything can happen. I’ve had races where I’ve felt like I’ve run 490 perfect laps there, and on the final restart you can get taken out and feel like you’ve wasted a whole day. It’s a challenge but a place where I feel like if we get our stuff right, we’ve got a chance to go win.”
STRATEGIES TO PREPARE FOR MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY: “Getting prepared for Martinsville Speedway is similar to preparing for a superspeedway race,” Allmendinger said. “If you do everything right, and you get caught in a wreck or someone gets into you the wrong way, then it’s something you can’t control. It’s when you force yourself into those mistakes or early in the race you start bouncing off a guy and eventually they come back and pay you back. Those are things that you can control. For me, that’s what I do. If I can run my own race and everything goes right, then it’s not meant to be, then it’s not. It’s the times where you force something too early or you make a mistake and it causes your own issues, then that’s when I’m mad at myself.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1
BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1: “BUSH’S Beans is one of the partners that have been with JTG Daugherty Racing the longest, and I’m proud to have them on our Camaro ZL1 again this season,” Buescher said. “We’ve got a new paint scheme this weekend, showcasing the copper color of their original BUSH’S Beans packaging on their cans. Nothing goes better than BUSH’S Beans and NASCAR barbecues.”
RACING AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY: “You can definitely say there are mentally draining aspects of Martinsville (Speedway),” Buescher said. “It’s probably a little bit more physically than mentally draining. I love short track racing in general. Martinsville was a rocky start for me in my Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career, but I’m starting to come around to that place a little bit. I enjoy it more now every time we go a little bit more than the previous time. We had a really good run there last season, it was probably our first good finish of the year last season so we feel like going back should be something that we can build on and try to be a little bit better.”
LEANING ON TEAMMATE AJ ALLMENDINGER: “AJ runs extremely well there,” Buescher said. “It’s always nice to have a teammate to lean on that does as well as he does there. We try to get some information from the No. 47 team and look at data to try and learn as we go. We’re going to go out there and put on a good show. It’s a cool racetrack, it’s one of the places where I think fans really get into it a lot more than some of these others. I’m really looking forward to getting there.”
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MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY FAST FACTS
AJ ALLMENDINGER
Career Starts: 19
Career Wins: 0
Top-5 Finishes: 2
Top-10 Finishes: 6
Laps Led: 50
Average Start: 18.8
Average Finish: 19.4
CHRIS BUESCHER
Career Starts: 5
Career Wins: 0
Top-5 Finishes: 0
Top-10 Finishes: 0
Laps Led: 0
Average Start: 32.4
Average Finish: 23.2
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FAST FACTS – AJ ALLMENDINGER
Career Starts: 340
Wins: 1- 8/10/2014 Watkins Glen International
Top-fives: 10
Top-10s: 53
Pole Awards: 4
First Pole: 4/10/2010 ISM Raceway
Last Pole: 8/9/2015 Watkins Glen International
First Start: 3/25/2007 Bristol Motor Speedway
Best Start: 1st – 8/9/2015 Watkins Glen International (most recent)
Best Finish: 1st – 8/10/2014 Watkins Glen International
Driver DOB: 12/16/1981
Hometown: Los Gatos, CA
Crew Chief: Tristan Smith
FAST FACTS – CHRIS BUESCHER
Career Starts: 83
Wins: 1 – 8/1/2016 Pocono Raceway
Top-fives: 3
Top-10s: 7
Pole Awards: 0
First Start: 3/22/2015 Auto Club Speedway
Best Start: 9th – 6/25/2017 Sonoma Raceway
Best Finish: 1st – 8/1/2016 Pocono Raceway
Driver DOB: 10/29/1992
Hometown: Prosper, TX
Crew Chief: Trent Owens
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AJ ALLMENDINGER MARTINSVILLE KROGER STORE APPEARANCE
WHERE: 240 Commonwealth Blvd, Martinsville, VA 24112
WHEN: Friday, March 23 at 5:30 p.m. ET
