Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Richmond 1 Qualifying | Saturday, April 1, 2023
Practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series was canceled today at Richmond Raceway due to rain. Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, stopped by the media center and talked about how the rain will impact the weekend and also about the improvement RFK has made this year.
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang – HOW DOES THIS RAINOUT CHANGE THINGS? “It’s not too bad. I guess we’ll start really well out of it. We were really good here last year and I guess that gives me a lot of confidence that we’re gonna be just fine. If last year didn’t go as well as it did, I would be a lot more nervous right now.”
WHAT’S THE MOOD LIKE AROUND THE SHOP WITH HOW IMPROVED YOU GUYS ARE THIS YEAR? “There was a lot of optimism at this time last year, but not a lot of results to go with that. It was just a tough time. There was a lot of development and a lot of stuff going on and we’re just in a way better place this year. We’re making some awesome progress. We’re not starting from scratch with so much new. We’ve definitely had a lot of speed. We’ve had some bad luck along the way too and some good luck as well, but a lot of hard work and good, fast race cars will fix a lot of things.”
WE HAVE BEEN TO SO MANY DIFFERENT KIND OF TRACKS, SO DO YOU HAVE A FEEL FOR WHAT YOUR TEAM’S STRENGTH IS RIGHT NOW? “The speed has been there at all of these different style of tracks so far, COTA maybe not as strong as we wanted, but we’ve had speed at a lot of different styles, so it’s not that any one is standing out to us right now. I think we have a lot of potential anywhere we go, which gives you confidence you’re not having to circle one race and put all your eggs in one basket.”
HOW HAVE THINGS EVOLVED WITH BRAD NOW THAT YOU GUYS KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER THAN A YEAR AGO? “It’s just getting closer and building up that friendship and that relationship within the shop, and getting to know how we’re gonna operate and how we’re gonna find speed together, what our driving styles are like. There are a lot of things that have definitely started to mesh a lot better as we’ve gotten through the offseason and into the beginning of this year. It’ll continue to get better, but it’s definitely way more comfortable now with where we’re at and knowing what we can say and what we’re focusing on and what we need to work on.”
YOU DID THE TIRE TEST AT NORTH WILKESBORO. WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE SURFACE AND DID IT COMPARE TO ANY OTHER TRACK? “I wasn’t surprised by it because I had heard a lot of stories, but the best I can compare it to is Berlin, Michigan when we were ARCA racing. That’s a track where you got wide-open maybe twice during an entire race. I felt like at Wilkesboro we were able to do a little better than that, but it definitely wears on tires hard, so that’s gonna be a really fun race. It was a good time going out there and I think it’s gonna be really neat when we get all cars on track for the All-Star Race.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO GO BACK TO A PLACE LIKE THAT WITH SO MUCH HISTORY? “It’s really neat. That was a little bit before my time, so it’s not something that I have a real personal connection to like a Darlington. I love going to Darlington because of the history and because I watched growing up and was able to go there early in my career in Xfinity, so we don’t have that at Wilkesboro. At the same time, you know the history behind it and you love that we’re going back short track racing. It’s also really just cool to see it evolve from that abandoned racetrack that you drove by on the way to Bristol twice a year and watch the trees grow up higher and higher and just watched it go away to watch it making that recovery and coming back. That’s the cool part, to see how much progress has been made and that we were actually on track. I went up there when (Earnhardt) Junior got that group together to go help clean up and get it scanned for iRacing, which we assumed was the last saving grace for it was to get it digitally cataloged so that when it did disappear there was still some evidence, but it’s become a whole lot more than that. It’s just really neat to see it evolve here rather rapidly to get to the point where we can get back on track and I’m looking forward to the race. It’s gonna be really cool.”
