Team: No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Luke Lambert
Twitter: @17RoushTeam, @RoushFenway and @Chris_Buescher
Race Format: 501.3 miles, 367 laps, Stage Lengths: 115-115-137
Cook Out Southern 500 – Sunday, Sept. 6 at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
ADVANCE NOTES
NASCAR Playoffs, Throwback on Tap This Weekend at Darlington
- The ‘Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR’ and the start of the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs are on deck this weekend at Darlington Raceway, where the Cup Series will run 500 miles Sunday night.
- NASCAR’s award-winning throwback weekend will celebrate “NASCAR’s Champions…Past, Present and Future” for its throwback campaign.
- NASCAR will continue to use three competition-based performance metrics to determine the starting lineup and pit selection order for each race, replacing the random draw procedure.
- NASCAR will reward both season-long and single-race performance to determine the lineup and pit selection, using owner points position, the finish and fastest lap from the most recently completed race. Beginning this weekend, playoff cars will fill the top starting positions starting from the Round of 16, all the way through to the Championship 4.
- Four weeks of NASCAR action were initially completed prior to the COVID-19 hiatus with races at Atlanta, Homestead, Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Dover and Martinsville postponed before the schedule later picked back up in mid-May.
Buescher Historically at Darlington
- Buescher makes his seventh Cup start at Darlington on Sunday, where he has an average finish of 19th in six prior events.
- Prior to the back-to-back races in May, Buescher had finished no worse than 17th at ‘The Lady in Black,’ with a career-result of 12th in the 2019 Southern 500. Most recently, Buescher finished 32nd after getting caught up in multiple incidents in the return to racing, and followed that with a 23rd-place run three days later.
- Buescher earned an Xfinity career-best fifth-place run at Darlington in 2015 in the No. 60 entry. He also finished 12th two years prior in the No. 16 for Jack Roush.
Luke Lambert Historically at Darlington
- Lambert will be atop the box for his 10th Cup event at Darlington on Sunday, where he has an average finish of 18.9 with three top-10s. All three came with Newman in the No. 31, with a 10th-place result in 2014, an eighth-place run in the 2016 Southern 500, followed by seventh in the race a year later.
- Lambert also has one Xfinity Series event under his belt at Darlington, which came with Elliott Salder in 2012, finishing 24th.
QUOTE WORTHY
Buescher on racing at Darlington:
“I’m excited to get back to one of my favorite tracks, and thankfully we have a couple of races under our belts this year there, to help build on. With the playoffs kicking off, we have nothing to lose as a team, and look forward to putting our best foot forward in the Fastenal Ford come Sunday.”
Last Time Out
Buescher battled through the chaos in the closing laps of Saturday night’s race in Daytona, to finish ninth in the Fifth Third Bank Ford.
Where They Rank
Buescher is 21st in driver standings through 26 events.
On the Car
Fastenal celebrates its 10th season with Roush Fenway Racing in 2020. The Minnesota company spent three years on the No. 99 before jumping to the No. 17 Cup Series entry, and were the primary partner on the No. 60 Xfinity team that captured the owner’s championship in 2011.
Represented on the hood will be the Go Blue 500 Sales Event, running now through the end of September, which offers great savings on top brands that partner with Fastenal to support the No. 17 Fastenal Ford. The 10-Year Partnership logo will also be featured on the decklid, celebrating Fastenal and Roush Fenway Racing’s 10-year anniversary.
About Fastenal
Fastenal [Nasdaq: FAST] is North America’s largest fastener distributor and a ‘one-stop’ source for hundreds of thousands of OEM, MRO and Construction products. With more than 2,600 stores worldwide, the company supports B2B customers with tailored local inventory and dedicated personnel, who visit regularly, quickly respond to emergency needs, and provide efficient inventory management solutions. Fastenal’s service-oriented business network includes the world’s largest industrial vending program, 14 regional distribution centers, 8 custom manufacturing facilities, thousands of delivery vehicles, and industry-leading sourcing, quality and engineering resources.
