Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
Zippo 200 at the Glen – Watkins Glen International
Friday, August 7, 2015
Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 60 Ford EcoBoost Mustang, leads the NASCAR XFINITY Series standings by 20 points going into this weekend’s Zippo 200 at The Glen. Buescher visited the infield media center at Watkins Glen International to talk about his championship run and hopes for this weekend.
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 60 Ford EcoBoost Mustang – THREE ROAD COURSE RACES THIS MONTH. HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THIS AS A TEAM AND DRIVER? “Three road races and Bristol in this next stretch, so a very tough stretch. There will be a lot of wrinkled sheet metal, but a lot of fun as well. I really like coming back to Watkins Glen. We were really fast last year. We actually had Cheez-It on board our Mustang and I had a really solid run going and unfortunately ran into somebody else’s misfortune and cost us a good shot at it. We were fast. We had a great weekend. We have a lot of notes from that weekend that we’ve applied to this one and as we look forward I really like road racing. It’s not my background at all, but it’s enjoyable. It’s something we get to come and do that’s different than our normal schedule. We get to learn a lot. We have different people come in that are road racing experts that teach us a lot as we go. We try and do some kind of school or training beforehand to try and get back in a rhythm and it helps. This three in a row is tough because we only have so many road race cars. I think all the teams are the same way in that aspect, so it’s a little tough to make sure that we can keep everything underneath us and keep equipment in good shape through this whole month. Going back to Mid-Ohio we have a very similar car going back there as well. Obviously, it worked pretty well for us and had a lot of speed throughout the race. Road America we’re trying something a little bit different for that road course as that wasn’t our highest one, so honestly I’m just glad to be road racing for a little bit and break up the schedule, and go have a little bit of fun. I’m fortunate enough to be able to pull double duty this week and get to drive the 34 Cup car as well, so we’ll have plenty of seat time this weekend on the track.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE MEETING THIS WEEK WITH BUBBA WALLACE AND HOW DO YOU GO FORWARD WITH THE POTENTIAL TO KEEP THINGS CLEAN IN YOUR RUN FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “This season has been really good for us. We’ve had some really solid runs throughout the year. We’ve had a lot of speed. We’ve been able to show up competitively to a lot of these race tracks and our teammates have done the same. We’ve been racing around each other a lot and it’s tough, but we’ve got it handled and we’re looking forward to getting into this stretch. Road racing is new to all of us in a sense, so we have a big learning curve for these next few weekends and we’ll make the best of it.”
SPECIFICALLY WITH THE MEETING. DID YOU GUYS AIR THINGS OUT AND TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GO FORWARD AND NOT HAVE THESE RUN INS ON THE RACE TRACK? “We have it to the point where we’re gonna be able to race around each other and not have to worry about anything.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED — WERE YOU SURPRISED YOUR FIRST WIN CAME ON A ROAD COURSE? “Yes, very surprised. Like I said, road racing is not my background. Mid-Ohio, we showed up really fast off the truck and we were able to maintain the speed throughout the weekend, so we knew we had a shot. We were top-5 every time we went on track, whether it was qualifying or practice and the whole race we were able to maintain that. It’s not like we lucked into it either. We were on a fuel mileage strategy, but at the same time we had a late-race restart with 20 or 18 to go and they had their shot to try and get around us, so we were able to pull it off. But it was a big surprise.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE NUMBER OF ROAD COURSE RACES COMING UP. IS IT BETTER TO HAVE IT STACKED LIKE THAT OR WOULD IT BE BETTER TO HAVE THEM SPREAD OUT MORE? “I’m not really sure, honestly. I like the fact that we’re able to keep a rhythm and keep going into them, so from that part I really like it. It is tough to have that many cars ready. You’ve got to have three primaries and a back-up, so it’s tough to build up that kind of inventory for everybody, and make sure that if you do have to go to a back-up in one of the first two, then you have to realize that also puts you at a shortage for the last race. I like the fact that we’re able to get in a rhythm, stay in it, and try to learn a lot really quickly. I don’t know that it would be better to have them spread out through a six-month period and have to change pace and start over every time. I like how it is this year.”
WHAT ARE YOUR EARLY IMPRESSIONS OF THE TRACK HERE? “This track is different than our other two road courses. It’s very fast. It’s very smooth. The smooth rhythm, I guess, is how I’d try to describe getting around it. There are a lot fewer corners than most of the tracks we go to, but it still has its challenges. A lot of elevation change up through the esses here. You spend a lot of time trying to get wide-open through a lot of these corners and it’s very difficult I learned last year, so it took me every bit of all of our practice to really get in a rhythm and try to learn this track. When you compare it to Road America or Mid-Ohio, they are very narrow courses. They have very slow, crawling corners and they are probably a little less elevation overall and I could be completely off by saying that, but from the feel of it I feel like this is unique and just the amount of speed that you carry around it and trying to control that the whole race is pretty tough.”
