Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Quaker State 400 Media Availability — EchoPark Speedway
Saturday, July 11, 2026
Christopher Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Kroger/Heinz Ketchup/Artesano Brioche Ford Mustang Dark Horse, is currently seventh in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings. He stopped by the EchoPark Speedway infield media center before qualifying to talk about this weekend’s race.
CHRISTOPHER BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/Heinz Ketchup/Artesano Brioche Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE ON YOUR VERY OWN BILLBOARD? “I am realizing there was some reality to Ryan’s post and I’m not gonna lie, that guy uses a lot of ChatGTP and I just knew that he was faking this one, and a lot of people online pointed out that the trees didn’t have leaves on them, or it was the same photo for both, and I realized those were just renderings as to what they would really look like because we have seen time and time again that this actually happened. Scott Graves was driving down this morning and confirmed it in our group chat that there are billboards, so I guess I’ve made it at this point. My face is on a billboard. Either we’ve done something really well or if you’ve been hurt in a motorcycle accident, I’ve got you. I don’t know (laughing). It’s something. Ryan is back to shenanigans, which is fine because I’m currently in the process as well and I look forward to unveiling that before too terribly long. We’re gonna keep having fun with it. I do realize that everybody here at EchoPark Speedway had a role in this, so we will have to figure out how to return that favor somewhere along the way, but that was something.”
YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CHRISTOPHER BUESCHER THIS WEEKEND AFTER LOSING THE BRACKET BATTLE WITH CHRISTOPHER BELL, RIGHT? “So your question was why am I holding 64 ounces of ketchup in my hand? Obviously, we’ve got the Heinz Ketchup Ford Mustang this week. It’s a pretty awesome-looking ride and we figure we’re just gonna pour everybody a little shot on the way out of here, so I hope you all are ready. The other question you kind of skated over there. We were sitting on the stage last week and I was sitting next to C Bell, I’m just gonna shorten his all the way, and he’s sitting there and we’re talking like, ‘What are we gonna do? What’s it gonna be?’ And I’m like, ‘You know what? We’ll just make it to where whoever wins this thing, just tell the other one where they need to shut their first name off at.’ He said, ‘Yeah. I like that. We’ll do it.’ And I’m sitting here thinking, ‘There’s one stopping point that’s not acceptable for either of us’ and that was after the t and we agreed on that. But he was nice to me. He let me have my full legal birth name back, so we’re Christopher for the weekend on that side, but I was gonna be way more mean than that. I was thinking just Ch, or Chri. I didn’t know exactly where I was gonna end. Christoph seemed pretty good. There were so many ways he could have gotten at me, so, yeah, I’m appreciative of the full name.”
DOES THE PAYBACK FOR THE SHENANIGANS GET INCREASED WITH HIM USING THAT PHOTO? “I guess that’s kind of leading into something that honestly had nothing to do with him pranking me, but I’m equally embarrassed about, so that was just straight up due to our friends at Kroger and Minute Rice, but to be seen on that front. Ironically, I did have that same haircut when I was a kid, but it just wasn’t that red. From that side of it, it’s OK, but I think he’s just jealous I got the Minute Rice ride this year and he didn’t, so that’s why he used that photo. I don’t know where that one came from. Apparently, he was asking around trying to get baby photos of me and things of that nature, but I’ve got enough friends around here that they didn’t release those. It’s not too out of hand yet. I did not see him spending this much currency to get this accomplished and it makes me realize I may have cheaped out on my next project a little bit, so I’ll have a couple weeks to do a little spending, but I promise it’s going to be equally as much fun if not just a little bit more rewarding on a psychological level.”
THIS WILL BE THE FIRST SUMMER RACE WITH THAT NEW TIRE SETUP FROM FEBRUARY. DO YOU KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT YET WITH HOW THAT’S GOING TO REACT TO DIFFERENCES IN TRACK AND AMBIENT TEMPERATURE? “To be honest with you, I never really have figured out what to expect when we come to Atlanta yet. It seems like it changes so much in between our races by itself. Weather conditions are so significantly different this go around. I don’t have a good answer for you. Qualifying is not a good read on it because it’s a single lap and everybody is locked down and nothing drives great in qualifying, but you can deal with it for a lap by yourself. Really, we get into the race and it remains to be seen. Obviously, going into the night we’ve had some good night races here that it seems like the handling kind of comes to you for the entire field. The track seems to widen out as we get into our race, whether it is day or night, it takes a little bit longer to work in that third groove here. I don’t know if it’s just dirty at first or needs to get rubber in it. There’s enough handling here that it’s not like a Daytona or Talladega where you can just find a clean way forward. It has to come in, so, no, I don’t have the answers for sure. There’s a lot to figure out as we go into tomorrow and, really, the O’Reilly race isn’t a great read for our race either here. The cars are just too different at this point, I believe, to get that feel. So, there are more questions than answers.’
YOU WERE AT NORTH WILKESBORO SEVEN YEARS AGO AS PART OF THE CLEAN UP. DID YOU EVER FATHOM THAT IT WOULD BE BACK IN ITS CURRENT STATE AND HOST A POINTS RACE? “No. I remember we went up there, me and Bailey Currey rode up there together. It started out as like a question of who is willing to help. I was like, ‘I’ve got a skid steer and a trailer and I’ll come up there and move some dirt around and clear the track.’ I’d seen some pictures. I’d driven by it on my way to Bristol every year and I knew how bad a shape it was in from the road. We got there and I remember Dale riding around on the street sweeper just making laps and smiling ear to ear covered in mud basically. It was nasty. It was cold. I was like, ‘He did the bulk of the work already.’ So we got there and I remember just going around and having the understanding that it was to try and get it scanned and preserved in the digital world knowing that it probably wasn’t gonna make it beyond that. It’s pretty remarkable to see where it’s gotten to now. It’s been such a fun racetrack to be on, whether it was the old surface or the new. It’s gonna be a fun night race, a long race as well. There are a lot of cool things coming there, but it’s really neat to see where it’s gotten to, but I had no clue that was even a possibility while we were there.”
WOULD NORTH WILKESBORO BE AROUND WITHOUT DALE’S INVOLVEMENT AND PUSH BEHIND IT? “I don’t see a world that it would have been anything like it is, no. I felt like that was a push from him and a movement that he created and got a lot of people behind it in a lot of ways and it worked. The racing has been good there. The fan involvement there has been fantastic. The stories that you get from people that remember going there back in the day and those that didn’t understand it and had to see it for themselves. It’s pretty wild, but that was definitely something that I don’t believe would have come around without him really pushing.”
LAST WEEK BRAD ADDRESSED THAT HE FELT THE TEAMWORK AT TOYOTA MADE SOME OF THE RACES PREDETERMINED. DO YOU FEEL THAT WAY? “It’s probably gonna be more in Brad’s wheelhouse, for sure, from the driver and the ownership side. He is definitely more in the weeds with that. I think in trying to take bits and pieces of what I hear him saying there just from that interview and also what we see week to week I see where he’s coming from and how we work together and how we can be better to try and have that high tide raise all ships. That’s kind of the idea and the principle he was trying to get across there, so, right now, obviously we are in a place where we are not the dominant manufacturer and so we’re gonna figure out ways that we feel like we can get there and feel that could be part of it. No one is sitting still. I promise you that, whether it’s manufacturers, our engine shop, RFK, personally. We’re all trying to figure out how to find that little bit of extra speed that will get us to the point where we can say we’re contending to win races week in and week out. We’re just not quite there yet. We have plenty of ideas on what it could be. If 10 percent of everybody’s idea actually makes it better, then at the end of the day it would make it a lot better for all of us on the RFK side of things and the Ford camp, I guess, in principle. There’s no way to prove it out, but I understand some of the comments from it.”
NOW THAT WE HAVE THE CHASE SYSTEM AND YOU’RE SEVENTH IN POINTS. WHAT HAS THIS POINT IN THE YEAR BEEN LIKE FROM A MENTAL AND STRESS STANDPOINT KNOWING YOU’RE IN A GOOD POSITION TO QUALIFY? “Very similar as years past in a lot of ways because we haven’t won yet. The years that we’ve won races they’ve come deeper into the season than we would like them to every time. We’ve had a couple years where the wins came in the playoffs. In ‘23 it came right leading up to it and secured everything for us, but, yeah, if you think about the place we’ve been on a points standpoint, it’s been simply because we hadn’t won races yet the last couple of years and on a straight consistency side of things if you took this format, we would have easily made the Chase. We’re aware of that. It doesn’t change what the system was at the time. We’re aware of where we’re at now and we’re gonna be a Chase contender. We know that. I’ve told everybody that from the beginning of the year because that’s how we’ve been able to race year in and year out, it’s just we still don’t have a win right now. So from most aspects of it, it’s very much the same, it’s just the result or the perks from the win are not a guarantee, but realistically we feel like we’ve already got that part covered. We’re just trying to figure out how to win races and that’s the stressful side or the driving side or however you want to put it. It’s figuring out how to get into Victory Lane.”
DO YOU FEEL SAFE ENOUGH WITH WHERE YOU ARE IN POINTS AND WHAT TRACKS ARE AHEAD? “The drafting tracks has been one of the places that have produced the knockout from the top row. That was tough to go through and we knew it was a possibility and it happened to us. That won’t be the situation exactly this go, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s no way we can afford to give anything. You can’t be reckless. You can’t give anybody an inch. We still have to perform at a high level. We still have to do our work ahead of time and come into these weekends and be prepared to put in our max effort. With that, we’ll be fine on making the Chase, but that’s ultimately not the goal. It’s realizing and I think seeing it more and more out there that if you can start the Chase in fifth or sixth spot, or better, then you have a shot to win a title and we’re just outside of that, so we have to step up to be able to get to that point to where we’re not just a participant but a contender at the end. So where we’re at right now I’m not worried about making the Chase. I’m just not. That’s going to come to us with the kind of races we’re able to put together, but I want to win races. I don’t want to just be consistently right there around the fifth to eighth place. I want to win races and we’ve got a lot of good tracks coming up for us, but, yes, when you go to drafting racetracks there are those chances that things get wild. Take them for what they are. We know it can happen, but we’re in a really good spot and our team has worked really hard to get us here knowing that this was gonna be a stretch where you can have some big gains or big losses.”
