Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Michigan Media Availability
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse, has one career NASCAR Cup Series victory at this week’s stop on the circuit – Michigan International Speedway. Buescher answered questions from the media earlier today about the test session he participated in a few weeks ago and what makes MIS a favorite among drivers.
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – EVERYONE ASKS ABOUT THIS WEEKEND BEING THE HOME OF JACK ROUSH, BRAD KESELOWSKI AND FORD. IS THIS WEEKEND A DIFFERENT FEELING? “There’s a little added pressure behind everything heading into everybody’s home track. Fortunately, we’ve got a third car and it’s not Preece’s home track, so at least there are two of us this year, but it’s a big one as we head up there. We have a lot going on. We’ll get to see a lot of the Ford family and get to see a lot of Jack and the Roush automotive family that will come out to the racetrack and be a part of the weekend. It’s a big deal. It really is, so I’m excited to get back up there. We got to do the tire test there a couple months ago, so I felt like that went really strong for us and I’m ready to get on track. It’s gonna be really fast to fire off with the weather looking like it’s gonna be in the seventies.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THAT TEST BECAUSE DANIEL SUAREZ SAID HE DIDN’T LEARN ANYTHING BECAUSE HE CRASHED? “Fortunately, my story doesn’t go like that. I know we had some of our own issues showing up there and it took us a little time to get sorted out. It turned into a one-day test because of weather, so I think it ended up being 8–8 or something like that. It was a long test day for everybody, but the team did a good job. We got everything rolling in the right direction and you always learn a couple things for yourself and then as we got into sets of tires and different options, we made short and long runs and ultimately I think we didn’t have to tune on our race car a whole lot, which makes me really confident going back. We threw a lot of different tire options at it, so I think what we ended up with and what I think we’re going back with – and maybe I’m gonna be incorrect on this – but should be the same left side that we run at all these other mile-and-a-halves at this point. They’re trying to keep that all the same everywhere, so it gripped it up and actually made it a little bit easier for the first handful of laps, but it was also like 40 degrees at that test so as far as fall off goes and those things, I don’t think we have a good handle on what exactly that’s gonna look like showing up.”
DID YOU TRY TO GET AN XFINITY RIDE FOR THE MEXICO CITY RACE? “No, I did not. I haven’t been in an Xfinity car in a really long time. There have certainly been a lot of weeks where I would have loved to done it. Mexico would be one of those, but it’s just not been as easy for us in recent years without having our own Xfinity team underneath the roof here. It’s just been a little bit more of a challenge to just jump into something. Not many other teams have something just sitting there waiting or some kind of opportunity like that, so I would have if the right circumstances were there, but, ultimately, they’re not at this moment.”
WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE OF BEING GOOD AT MICHIGAN YEAR AFTER YEAR AT A TRACK WHERE YOU’RE THERE ONLY ONCE A YEAR? “We were very good last year, so all things considered, even with our damage there at the end, we had a good race car. I think that turn three ultimately is the bigger challenge at that speedway. It’s just flatter. In turn one you have so much banking that it’s a lot easier to keep power down. Obviously, it’s a track position sensitive race and it’s just not widened out very much. I kind of poke fun at it and laugh about this a little bit, but however that surface has not aged, it doesn’t seem like one bit over the course of what has it been – over a decade since it was re-done. I don’t know how they did it because the roads out front are certainly a whole lot rougher than that. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s just stayed very similar year over year, so you’re able to really fine-tune little detail stuff to continue to get better. I think the field is closing in because we’re getting to a point where you do have some wide open there and ultimately you’re kind of getting the terminal velocity and everyone is trying to get to that same one, so it’s gonna get tighter yet but I do believe we’re gonna be very strong showing back up.”
LOGISTICALLY, IS MEXICO GOING TO BE A DIFFERENT WEEKEND FOR YOU AS FAR AS HOW IT LAYS OUT AND UNFOLDS? “Yeah, certainly on that side of things we’ve had a lot of meetings and got one more just to try and finalize how this is all gonna look. You’re pretty much going to be on a schedule to be able to get transportation to and from the facility. You’re on more of a tighter window. As drivers, we’ve gotten spoiled a little bit too much and get to kind of come and go as we please. If it gets within an hour or hour-and-a-half of practice you show up, but I think this is gonna be different. You’re just gonna try and maximize your time spent at the facility, if not on track studying what is on track and if not with your group trying to figure out what it is you need to be good there, or to be better if we’ve been on track yet. It’s definitely gonna be a different race weekend from all of those standpoints. I’m not one of the few drivers that have been down there to race in year’s past. I’ve heard stories from people on how it goes and the logistics of it and I’m getting ready to find out first hand.”
HOW ARE YOU APPROACHING YOUR POSITION IN THE POINT STANDINGS? YOU’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE. “I think that, for us, we’ve been able to recognize that it’s always a must-win situation. From the beginning of the year, you have to win races. There’s been a couple of times where we’ve been right there in a good spot or been right there in that window and just get a surprise winner or two to close the regular season, or we got caught up in an accident in Darlington the other year and you can’t depend on points to get you in the playoffs when it’s as tight as it is every week. For us, I think that’s been our mindset, which means that ultimately wherever we bounce around that line we’ll be aware of it, but it’s a matter of figuring out how to go win races and we haven’t done that yet. We’ve not been quite good enough and we’re working on trying to clean up some of the detail work and study a little harder and be better from my end behind the wheel and make it to where we basically lock ourselves in on that side of it and don’t have to have any of that thought in the back of our heads. But I certainly don’t want it to be what we’re sitting here thinking of how can we get two points here, three points there and try and just feel like we can skate our way in. It doesn’t work. Ultimately, you can’t count on that when it comes down to the end.”
THERE ARE A LOT OF DIFFERENT TRACKS COMING UP. DOES THAT CREATE MORE OF AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GUYS OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE TO WIN? “Not really. I haven’t put much thought into what it’s gonna do for others, I guess. We’re in this stretch of races where we’ve won at a few of these things. We’ve run really strong at a lot of others. We’re gonna get in the summer where it’s gonna get hot and we’re gonna start catching a few drivers off guard here or there. Ultimately, there’s a lot of good racetracks coming up for some good racing for us, selfishly at RFK and probably some good ones for some other teams as well. We’ll see where it all plays out, but I guess, for us, I don’t think we have any racetracks on the schedule that we don’t feel good about. One, it’s fun to have that mindset and not have to head into a race weekend just hoping to get through it, and that comes from fast race cars. It comes from everybody here working hard and putting me in a better spot, but I’m sure there’s a lot of teams that have some of these tracks circled and it’s on us to go ruin their weekend.”
WHAT IS CLICKING THIS SEASON THAT FANS MAY NOT SEE BEHIND THE SCENES? “We’re kind of running all into them now. We had a slow start to the season when it comes to mile-and-a-halves. You really only have Vegas and then Homestead just being so worn out is kind of its own animal. It’s a mile-and-a-half, but it’s very different. So we got done with Vegas and we didn’t really see another one for a while, so we’ve had a handful in the past and some coming ahead. Ultimately, we took a big step at the mile-and-a-half stuff this year and I’m really proud of our team for that because it was one of the things where we got to the end of last season and started seeing a little bit of improvement, but we certainly needed more and they took that challenge personally and we’ve showed up at the racetrack and been able to be fast off the truck and qualify really well and have that track position and have those good pit stall selections – all these things that make a race-winning weekend, we’re getting a lot of the pieces right. Like I said a little earlier, it’s some of the detail work now but it’s fast race cars. I’ve talked to some friends in this world and this industry that have gone from cars that were on the lower end side of things and more budget-oriented and have been able to get into the best of the best race cars and ask, ‘Man, does it just drive perfect?’ And the answer is no. It still has all the same problems. It’s still loose here. It’s still tight here. It just does it faster and that’s kind of what we’ve gotten to, where we still fight our balance issues, we’re just doing it at a better pace. So, I don’t have an answer for you as to what this thing is that’s all of a sudden clicked, but a lot of detail work from everybody here at RFK that’s gone into putting fast Mustangs on the racetrack and that’s just made me look good. It’s time to put it all together to put some trophies up on the shelf, but we’re sneaking up on it for sure.”
THE IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT FIELD WAS DECIDED AFTER NASHVILLE. WILL THAT AFFECT THE WAY DRIVERS AND TEAMS PREPARE KNOWING PLAYOFF SPOTS ARE ON THE LINE? THERE IS A MILLION DOLLARS ON THE LINE, SO HOW WILL TEAMS BALANCE THAT? “I don’t think it’s gonna change much at all. I should start with the fact that I’m not very knowledgeable on many other sports to the point where I don’t quite understand how all of the brackets and seedings work anyway, but, aside from that, ultimately it’s a lot on the line. There’s a million dollars at the end of it. I’m sure teams have taken note of it, but our season is way bigger, and I don’t know how many weeks it goes, but our season is way bigger than that and it’s not something that you’re willing to do anything whatsoever that will come at a detriment to racing for a championship, which means making the playoffs first. No, I don’t see that being something that’s going to affect anything leading into a race weekend. Maybe there’s a moment during a race where you can take a chance if you’re in that scenario racing one other car, where it’s one on one basically through the bracket. If there’s a moment you can make something happen and it doesn’t come at the expense of a penalty or at least a large penalty in any other way, maybe but I highly doubt you’ll see anything change because of that. I think it’s just something for our fans to dive off into and keep them excited, and it’s something to push against and let them have some fun with it.”
ARE YOU ABLE TO TAKE ANYTHING FROM YOUR SUCCESS AT MICHIGAN AND DAYTONA THAT HELPS YOU? “It’s gonna lean more to the intermediate side. You will have drafting to some extent, but I promise you when you get down in that corner you want every bit of clean air you can find. There’s nothing to gain an advantage of by staying in line in the corner, which is what superspeedway racing is – staying in line at any point. Even Atlanta, with handling issues you’re gonna try and stay in line, so that being said, that definitely put it more in the category of our mile-and-a-halves just with the significantly off throttle time.”
HOW MUCH OF A SAY DO YOU HAVE WITH IN-RACE STRATEGY? “When you talk about the strategy side of things, I’m not gonna make strategy calls. I have moments where I have a second guess of something in an immediate small window of time, but I can’t see the full picture and I’m fully aware of that so I’m not going to be the one to try and change up a call or try and add my two cents in on that side of things. I can say, ‘Hey, I think we can hang on with two tires. I think that will be fine. I think our car is good enough to do that.’ Or, if we feel like we can run the outside and make up some spots on a restart from a choose, I can say that, but, no, on the strategy gaming side of it, that’s something we talk about ahead of time and Scott relays options during the race and where his thoughts are at and I just give my two cents, but I am not going to be the driver that’s making any sort of those calls from the seat just because I am fully aware that I’m not working with a full board at that moment.”
