MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
GOBOWLING AT THE GLEN
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 3, 2019
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 COTTONELLE CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights:
DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT SUNDAY’S RACE AT THE GLEN?
“Yeah, I do. I like road racing in general. Ryan Preece does, as well. So, it’s kind of nice. I’ve always been able to come to road races and just have a good outlook on it. It’s definitely not my background. But, it’s fun. I don’t want to do it any more than we do. Three or four races per year is plenty for me. It breaks up our oval races. They are nice. This is a fast road course.
“We had a really good practice with our Cottonelle Camaro to start off the day. We’ve got another practice coming up here, quickly. So, we’ll see if we can fine-tune a couple of things there. But, this is definitely a weekend that we look at as a good opportunity to go get an another Top 10 and perhaps be able to get it win. It’s pretty wild to pace what a couple of cars are putting down here. So, we’ve got some work to do yet. But, we’re in a good place.”
YOU MENTIONED THE GOOD FINISHES AND THE BETTER POINTS POSITION. IS IT THE NEW CAR OR THE CHEMISTRY COMING TOGETHER WITH EVERYBODY ON THE TEAM?
“There are a ton of things that have probably come together. You start with going back and trying to build a second team from scratch. It was a lot of work early-on. I felt the chemistry within the team is really tough. We’ve hit on a lot there, now, that everybody works really well together. We are able to get those results, weekly, at this point. And, we’ve gotten rid of a lot of inconsistencies. We’ve been able to still take those high weekends and for the most part, capitalize on them. That’s a big part of it.
“Kroger has been more behind us than ever. With their support, and all the other brands that we have on board with Bush’s, with Clorox, and Scott products and everybody that really back us and believes in us to be able to go out there and get the job done. They’re on board in a big way. Myself and Ryan have been working with a top team, a trainer in Huntersville, that’s been good for our physical and mental health at the same time. There are just a lot of things that have all come into play. We’re starting to put all the puzzle pieces together to be able to capitalize on it. We’re not where we want to be. You want to be winning races every weekend. But when we looked at our expectations at the beginning of the season, we thought that if we could run Top 15 for the majority of the weekends that would be big for us. And, we’ve been able to get really darn good close to that and be right around that 15th spot a lot. We’ve been able to get more Top 10’s than I have been able to in a season, at this point. So, there are a lot of good things. There’s plenty to do yet, but it’s been a really good start this season and a really good last few months. We’re having fun with it and things are clicking right now.”
DO YOU MISS AJ ALLMENDINGER? HOW IMPORTANT WAS HE FOR WEEKENDS LIKE THIS?
“AJ is that ringer when we come road racing, right? And so there was always a ton that I was able to learn from him at a lot of different race tracks. But here, especially. But, I’m trying to take that into account and remember what I was able to pick-up on there. It’s probably going to be harder to squeeze any speed secrets out of him right now, but it was cool. I saw him earlier today. He’s always happy when we go road racing. It was neat to see him. I’m trying to apply some of the things I’ve learned through time. At the same time, I enjoy road racing. It’s something we’ve been able to run pretty decent at. And so, I’m trying to take that and utilize it at the same time. And then Ryan Preece enjoys road racing. It’s something that neither of us have any background in it, but I think if you enjoy something you tend to do better at it. So that’s something that definitely helps when we come to these things a couple of times a year.”
DO YOU THINK THERE COULD BE A WILDCARD RACE OVER THE NEXT FIVE WHERE YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO PULL OUT THE WIN AND WIN YOUR WAY INTO THE PLAYOFFS?
“I look at Bristol every time we go as an opportunity for us to go get a win. Earlier in the season we went to Bristol and ran really well. We were right there with Kurt (Busch) a lot of that race and he ended-up wining the thing. I definitely feel like that’s a place we look at as an opportunity to win.
“Road courses are good for us. I can’t say that we’ve been in a position to win one. We’ve been close. With a little strategy, we could pull something off and our whole group has done a terrific job this season at really planning on these races playing out and having good strategy. We have several that are opportunities for us to get something big.”
HAS THE DISCUSSION ABOUT KROGER AND WHAT THE LINE-UP WOULD LOOK LIKE FOR JTG NEXT YEAR BEEN A DISTRACTION?
“I wouldn’t say it was a distraction. Maybe on the media side of it, it’s been a talk for about a week. For us, it’s been a talk for a year. We’ve known about it. It’s something that’s been on your mind. You know that certain things have to fall into place, so it’s not something that just hit us all of a sudden and takes your mind away from things. Everything is not set in place yet. We’re working toward it and I’d say we’re getting close. And that’s nice to know, but at this time it’s what it’s been for a while. It’s not inked on paper yet. It’s not done. All we know to do is to go to the track and do our best and get the results. The rest of that stuff kings of falls into place.”
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