Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAY
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Ford Mustang
HOW ARE YOU FEELING TO START THE SEASON? EXCITED TO GET GOING? “Yeah, definitely. It is always nice to come back down and know that it is time to go again and get back into a rhythm and swing of things. The off-season went quicker than normal this year it seemed like. But it is all good. I got one or two of my 15 or 20 projects done. Getting back down here, it is time to go back racing. Time to refocus and get going with a new team, being back at Roush Fenway but with a handful of new people there. With Luke being a new crew chief, just a lot of relationships I am trying to build and get used to everybody and get communication working as best as possible before you get on the race track and then build it from there.”
IS RACING HERE GOOD PREPARATION FOR TALLADEGA OR ARE THEY COMPLETELY DIFFERENT? “It works really well for the superspeedways. They are similar enough. The race tracks do have their own characteristics and the drafts do formulate a little differently but with this package and being able to run the same thing all season on superspeedways, we will be able to use this to get a pretty good idea of what we will have going forward. A good tool to be able to make adjustments for Talladega and the next two speedway races.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEVER LEFT ROUSH? “Well, that one lap we had it is hard to tell. With the practice, yeah, I get what you are saying. Yeah, it is a lot different but a lot is also the same. It is strange to say it like that. You walk through the shop and see a lot of the same people. You see a lot of the same departments and see a different energy around and more positivity around. It is a smaller group than where I was there before, which is ultimately led me going to other teams for a little while. It has taken a little bit of getting used to just looking around and seeing that. There are a lot of new people as well. I am trying to get to know them. Get to know our team. I only knew about half of them beforehand. I am trying to build those relationships and get communication as good as possible and really hit the ground running. You don’t have any test time in our sport, so to get all of that working the way you need to, you get to show up at the race track on the weekend before the biggest race of our season and figure it out. That makes it very difficult when you are starting fresh. We are handling it really well. It is going good. I need a race or two or three to really start building on a lot of things and get the little nit-pick stuff that you look for when you are working with a group of people that make sure everyone is as efficient as possible.”
LAST YEAR YOU WERE A TOP-FIVE RESTARTER IN TERMS OF ADVANCED NUMBERS. WHAT IS THE RESTART DYNAMIC WITH THIS RULE PACKAGE? HOW DOES IT JIVE WITH YOU? YOU SEEM TO TAKE TO IT: “That surprises me a little bit. I didn’t know that. There is always room for improvement. I don’t know that I have a good answer for you. The restarts at several places are complete misery when you go five-wide into turn one at Pocono, that is a very awful feeling. But it does lend itself to a lot of opportunities at times as well. For whatever reason I have always felt like I have been able to get good momentum going on the bottom, which a lot of times it seems like the top does carry momentum a lot better and the bottom will get jammed up. I think that is a lot of what helped me be able to get good restarts on a lot of occasions. I couldn’t tell you what part of it created that for me.”
THOUGHTS ON STRATEGY? IS THERE A BUY IN FOR YOU ON THINGS LIKE STAGE POINTS, LOW HANGING POSITIONS, THINGS LIKE THAT? “You gotta walk before you run, right? We all show up to the season hoping that we can win races and make it into the playoffs that way. Until you go out there and get to the point where you realize that you are going to be able to contend for wins, you need to capitalize on everything that you can. So, as Roush is on that upswing and building momentum from the last year or so, you try to look at that as if it stays steady we can be at the point where we are contending for wins again shortly. I hope that is this week and every week after, but you have to go for those wins and if that is something where we realize we aren’t quite there yet, then we definitely want to capitalize on stage points, strategy calls, and anything you can do to make sure that we can make it into the playoffs one way or another. Wins are a simpler route but by no means easier.”
HAVE YOU BEEN PLEASED SO FAR WITH FITTING INTO THE TEAM AGAIN AND COMING BACK HOME, SO TO SPEAK? “Yeah, it has been really smooth for me. I know it is hard going to new teams and trying to get to know everybody from a clean slate. I don’t really have that going back to Roush. It has been a lot easier for me to walk through the shop and if I don’t know three people in a corner, I know two of the others sitting there. I can definitely have conversations easier and get to know everybody a little quicker as well. A lot of people in the shop I know from when I was working in the shop in different departments there. It is easier to go back and fall in line. Find your place, go back to work and try to rally everybody being you and say that this is going to be a good season. We are making progress. I have been able to be on the outside looking in and see the last year and a half plus, so I know I am coming into something that has momentum. I just want to try to do all I can to help capitalize on that.”
WILL TANDEM DRAFTING COME INTO PLAY THIS WEEKEND AND THIS YEAR? “I think tandem is still possible as long as the cars are driving decent and there can be some speed made with it. That was a unique circumstance in the Clash in the fact that the 11 was not going to pull out. You had guaranteed help, it was a teammate and he was not contending for position. That is probably the biggest help you will ever see and the biggest run. But I do think that when you start looking at the end of races and risk versus reward there is something to be said about making speed by getting that tandem working well together. I think damage or no damage, it can be useful. I bet you will start to see it a little bit with teams first, with manufacturers working together, and then as you start figuring out what works and what doesn’t kind of line you up for the end of the race and what is bound to be a little bit of madness.”
DID YOU TAKE ANYTHING AWAY FROM WATCHING THE CLASH? “Hopefully we make it through Thursday’s Duels. It was a wild finish. Wild end of a race. I think it is a little hard to compare them because it is a race where it is just a pride thing for teams and for drivers and for manufacturers and organizations. You can go out there and be a little crazy and do some things you normally wouldn’t do and use it as a learning tool. Unfortunately in the process they tore up all the race cars. You look at it now and you are trying to figure out how to not make that our Daytona 500. I don’t think it will. I think there will be a cooler head on everyone’s shoulders when you get to the big race that says a lot of that is not going to fly. Especially now that it has happened. There is a lot of knowledge, even for every driver that wasn’t in the race, they know just as well as the ones that were in it that a lot of those moves won’t work for this weekend’s race.”
