Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Clash at Bowman Gray Heat Races | Saturday, February 1, 2025
BUESCHER TO START ON THE OUTSIDE FRONT ROW OF CLASH AT BOWMAN GRAY AFTER WINNING HEAT 2
FORD DRIVERS ADVANCING TO TOMORROW NIGHT’S CLASH: Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland.
Ryan Blaney did not qualify in his heat race, but since he is the highest point finisher from last year not currently in the field, he has the opportunity to claim the provisional spot and compete in the 23-car field.
Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Kroger/Tree Top Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RFK Racing, led every lap to win Heat 2 tonight and will start on the front row in tomorrow night’s Clash at Bowman Gray. He spoke to media afterwards.
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/Tree Top Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THE COLISEUM IN L.A. WAS NOT KIND TO YOU. WHAT DID YOU FIND HERE THAT WORKED? “For us, a lot of things we learned about what not to do there and we weren’t good any of the times we went and we steadily found some things that were a little bit better, but ultimately needed a pretty big overhaul. I would say that Preece has been a pretty big mover for us on some of these flat short tracks. Some of the things that he’s done through the years that have worked really well. Last year they kind of excelled in this style of race and that was really beneficial to RFK as a whole, so it’s kind of one of the things we talked about a lot through media day and all that, and how we expected to be better overall and it’s already showing. We’ve got a lot of racing left to do, but it’s been a good start.”
IS THERE A COOL FACTOR RACING AT A PLACE LIKE THIS? “Yeah. I was here 15 years ago, more than that, probably almost 20 years. Geez, I’m old, but it was probably almost 20 years ago now when I raced a Legends car here and it was cool then. It was really cool and I’m not gonna lie, the track was tight in a Legends car. It’s surely snug now, but obviously through the years the history of this place, to be back here in a Cup car, we’ve all seen the Madhouse show and we all know about what goes down here. I’ve come up here as a fan and watched more fingers fly than I thought were actually in the stands. It’s just got a lot of character to it and surely it’s making it a lot of fun.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE NOT JUST THE RACING BUT THE ATMOSPHERE ITSELF? “I don’t think I ever can remember being heckled on a track walk in a really long time (laughing). I didn’t get it too bad. Most of it was good. I got heckled and found out that was just a friend up there, so he was just messing with me, but to have that many people here for the modified race and to stick around for all of our practice and heat races hours later is pretty awesome. We all know the energy and how well this stadium does at putting people up into the bleachers and I think they had a crazy day today with modifieds and obviously we’ve got some races to go to finish out the night, but I’m really excited about tomorrow.”
IS IT MORE AGGRESSIVE? “It was smooth from where I was at, so I will take that all day every day. We watched the first heat and obviously it was physical for the second half, but up front it was pretty smooth sailing in that one, too. If you can get away, it’s not too bad, but we’re gonna be in a lot more lap traffic too once we get in the race tomorrow.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE AT THE FRONT OF THE FIELD TOMORROW? “Yeah, it’s just gonna set you up to get going right from the get-go. We’re gonna be in the back of the field in 15 laps, maybe less, so I think you’re always gonna be in traffic of some sort and just having that little bit of gap behind you hopefully you’ve got to hang onto that to get going, but if you can have just that little bit of breathing room, that will put you in a lot better spot to where you’re not just pinballed around as much. I haven’t seen this one, but just the first heat some innocent bystanders getting spun out just from check ups and just the fact that it gets tight out there. It gets congested, so that’s definitely the place to be. It puts us in a good spot to just be safer from the get-go.”
WHAT ACCOUNTED FOR THE GAINS YOU MADE IN PRACTICE AND THE QUALIFYING RUN? “Yeah, we made big changes. The team made really good changes and just had a game plan coming in. We ran a lot of simulation leading up to this. We don’t typically do a ton of preliminary work from me as a driver in the simulator. It’s typically a lot more after races, but given my track record at these quarter miles, I figured better bite off into that one, so I ran a lot more there and went through all three of our cars and tried to pick out the good and the bad, and our team did a good job of having changes ready so that when we got here and realized we were just way too loose, we were able to make quick adjustments to get in the ballpark, so in our second session out there we were able to get on the other side of it and we were able to bring that back and then also just kind of tweak on some braking stuff at the same time and just got it to where it was a whole different race car for qualifying and for that heat race.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE WITH THESE TIRES AND WHAT IS IT GONNA BE LIKE FOR 200 GREEN FLAG LAPS TOMORROW NIGHT? “You watch the qualifying rounds. It seemed at the beginning it was three, four laps was the fast lap for the early groups. I think we’ve seen some groups at lap 10 or 11 maybe was their fast lap, given probably just spacing out one or two of those laps, so it changed a little bit through the evening. I believe it’s gonna be colder yet tomorrow, but I think we’re gonna get to the point where you’re gonna chase tire wear. We’re gonna try to take care of stuff. We tried in the heat race. We tried to get a couple car lengths out and just kind of conserve from there. I think it did work. We had something left at the end just to be able to get that little bit of gap, but I would imagine that we are gonna see it fall off. I think we just hope that you can control it as a driver. If you can make a difference in that fall off, that’s ideal. If we all fall off the same no matter what you do, then it’s hard to make a difference from behind the wheel, or as big a difference, but I feel like you can be smart about it and know when to push and make decisions at the right times that if the tire will react to that, then it’ll make comers and goers throughout the evening.”
