Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
5-Hour Energy 301 Advance – New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Friday, July 17, 2015
Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 60 Zest Ford Mustang, leads the NASCAR XFINITY Series standings going into this weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He spoke to the media what it’s going to take to keep that lead the rest of the season.
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 60 Zest Ford Mustang – WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS THIS WEEKEND? “I’m glad to be back to a short track. It’s been a couple of races and we’re looking forward to it. This was a really good race for us last year. We learned a lot throughout the race and got some track position the second half and was able to follow some of the Cup guys that were out there and learned a lot doing that, so I feel like we have some things we can apply towards this race, getting into the habit of watching old race tape and trying to figure out what we can learn for this time around and see if we can’t make it a little bit better. I’m just glad to be back at a short track. It’s a really flat track and really line sensitive compared to a lot of short tracks we go to now, but it’s a lot of fun. I’m glad the weather is nice and it’s not doing anything crazy right now, so it’s nice and cool. I’m looking forward to practice.”
DO YOU VIEW THIS TITLE RACE NOW AS A THREE-MAN OR FIVE-MAN BATTLE AT THIS POINT? “I’d say we have to plan on five. It’s just like you said, it’s the halfway point. There are a lot of chances for these guys to get back a lot closer and there’s a chance for us to get a little bit more space in between us, so we have to figure on having to race several of these guys as the year goes on. Right now, I feel like at this very moment we’re racing the 3 and the 9 pretty much every week, but if we’re not careful the other guys can sneak up there and be a contender as well. We just need to be aware of it and be aware that we’re racing five guys.”
ARE YOU SURPRISED AT ALL WITH WHERE YOU ARE IN THE STANDINGS RIGHT NOW? “I felt like this is where we should be. At the very end of last year we had some really good momentum. We started getting a lot more top fives. We were close. We got our Mid-Ohio win and felt like we had a lot of good momentum going into this year, and pretty much said if we started off where we left off that we would be top-five in points no problem. They brought in some new people and we’ve worked on our XFINITY cars pretty hard trying to figure out some places to get speed, places to get weight, and things of that nature just to be a little bit more competitive and we’ve been able to do that. Because of that, and because of a lot of the work that our shop put in through the off-season, we’re able to be here right now, so I think that’s good.”
HOW DO YOU STAY THERE THE SECOND HALF AND ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK TO MID-OHIO? “I’m definitely looking forward to getting back to Mid-Ohio. I like road racing. It’s not my background, but I like it. I have a lot of fun going to all of our race tracks that we race at actually. Watkins Glen was gonna be a good race for us last year when we got tangled up in a mess. It’s a break from our normal and we get to go have a little bit of fun, so I’m looking forward to the road races and I feel like we’ll run well there. As far as this season goes and trying to stay where we’re at and move forward, we know we can’t be laying over yet. We’ve got to keep going and being aggressive and trying to get more race wins – the maximum amount of points possible each and every week, and if we have to take some chances, we’re gonna do it, but we can’t be careless about the chances we take. We’ve got to be careful enough to keep our point situation at least where it’s at and we need to make sure we can gain on it on good days.”
IS THIS TRACK SIMILAR TO PLACES YOU’VE RUN BEFORE? HOW HAVE YOU ADAPTED? “Last year was my first time racing the track. The previous year I came up here and I was the pit sign guy for Billy Johnson, so I got to watch a little bit that year and see some of the things during the race that were helping guys. The most similar place I can compare it to – pretty much everywhere we go I try and find somewhere to compare it to and I go back to the ARCA schedule. It reminds me a little bit of Mansfield, where we had a really flat groove and a pretty aggressive progressive banking, so it changed really, really quickly between lanes. So Mansfield, everyone said it was a one-groove race track and you get to racing and you can actually run two-wide you just rub fenders a little bit more. That’s one I’ve come back to and thought it was most similar to for me.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE FOR A YOUNG GUY TO RACE AT INDIANAPOLIS WITH ALL THAT HISTORY? “Last year was really neat, getting to go to the big track over there. I won’t lie, I love ORP or LORP, whatever it’s called now – IRP – I love the short track there and actually that’s another one you could probably compare this one close to, but the big track is special because of what it is. I remember making the first laps around there last year and realizing just how fast it was. I mean, it was unreal the amount of speed you carry down into one. I don’t know what it is, but in three you feel like you have a little bit more room to gather things up. One just feels narrow and I know I about got the fence the first two laps coming off of turn one just because it comes up on you so quick, and it took a lot of learning trying to figure out how to make four separate corners and how you needed to react differently. One and two you drive so differently from each other just because of the way the race track is shaped, so it was really neat. I had a lot of fun doing it. It was a really hot race. I remember that one, that was one of the places I was burning up, but it’s a special race track for NASCAR, the XFINITY guys, the Cup guys and everybody. It’s a really cool place to go and we’re looking forward to getting back there. We get to participate in the Dash 4 Cash program, so that’s exciting and adds a little bit of extra pressure.”
