Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Anduril 250 Media Availability — Naval Base Coronado
Friday, June 19, 2026
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Body Guard Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT PRACTICE SESSION WENT? “I don’t think it was too bad. Overall, it was a little different than the simulator, just from a couple tire bundle places, although we saw that on the track walk. The pit wall barrels kind of coming up head-on is not ideal there, but outside of that, it’s really not bad overall. It’s slick in some places and narrow in others and incredibly wide in others, so it’s a big challenge, which we knew it would be coming in.”
WHAT WAS MORE CHALLENGING, THIS PRACTICE OR DECIDING TO STAY AT RFK? “This was way more challenging. This is quite possibly the hardest thing we’ve done in a race car. It was very difficult to find your marks, figure out what’s doable and then you just really don’t have much room for error. We’ve seen probably six, seven, eight backup cars across the first two series to go out today and we certainly didn’t want to be in that grouping. We were just trying to build up to it and our last run was certainly our best. We got a lot better there, so I feel like we’re gonna be in a decent spot for qualifying. We’ve got to find some speed yet, but it will be hard to show up here off memory. We all have 12 or 15 laps around here now, off memory go put down your fast lap right from the get-go tomorrow, so it’s gonna be tricky like we knew it would. I’m glad to have a clean Body Guard Ford Mustang at the end of this thing. That makes us feel decent on that front, but we just have to keep hunting for some speed.”
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO STAY AT RFK? “There are lots of reasons that I have that have been formed from 15 years ago and it’s simply the opportunity that was afforded me by Jack Roush and everybody at RFK. Through that time period all the way to now to be able to keep it going, I feel like from a performance standpoint we’re in a good spot, but we have to be able to better it yet. I think we can get there, I do. Right now, we’re going to a lot of these mile-and-a-halves or Michigans or Poconos or wherever they may be and it’s fresh in my mind right now and we’re somewhere between a fourth to seventh place contender. I think we were a little better than that at Pocono, but everyone’s favorite phrase – dirty air – but with that the potential is really close to being in the hunt to win week in and week out, and I believe that we can get there, and I believe we have a ton of really talented people. With a new Ford coming next year I’m looking forward to getting the Dark Horse SC on track and seeing what that feels like and where that can carry us, so, again, some of it is history and having that appreciation and feeling like you have a home and the other part of it is truly feeling like the competition level is right there at the cusp of truly being great.”
