Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Zoom Media Availability | Tuesday, August 24, 2021
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang — HAVE YOU GOTTEN ANY SENSE OF WHETHER IT WILL BE ANY DIFFERENT WITH THE SMALLER TAPERED SPACER AND THE WICKER? “Not a real good one yet. I think the hope is to make it a little bit, I say safer but the idea is to hopefully make it to where when you’re pushing you don’t have the rear wheels off the ground of the car in front of you and hopefully that will make it to where we can dance around a little bit more and be able to race a little bit harder. The current scenario is what’s got me more intrigued than anything else. We’re in a must-win situation. We know that and we pretty much figured it for a few weeks now, but when I look at the standings and where everybody is at, you’re looking at two drivers — teammates — that are sitting there and honestly racing on maybe a slightly conservative points situation. And then you have everybody that’s locked in that’s going for those playoff points and go after a trophy or a steering wheel, and then you have everybody from us back that is sitting there saying the same thing — it’s trophy or steering wheel. I don’t know if the package and what we’re bringing is going to be the biggest deciding factor in how the race plays out this weekend. I think it’ll more or less be the mindset as we look at Daytona being a cutoff for our playoffs yet again, so that’s my opinion. I don’t know. There are probably some different strategies throughout there, but I feel like where I’m sitting at and looking it’s a lot of people saying this is our opportunity. It’s that one last shot and nothing else really matters at this point.”
HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT FOR YOURSELF WHAT THE LINE YOU’RE WILLING TO GO TO IS IN ORDER TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS AND IS IT DIFFERENT THAN THE LINE TO TRY TO GET A WIN AT TALLADEGA IN APRIL? “I would say a little bit, yeah. I don’t know where my cutoff is, so to speak. I think I’m usually pretty aggressive with trying to make moves, but I’m also not the most aggressive with trying to block moves. That came through my upbringing in racing. If you got blocked, you took care of that person really quickly, and if you blocked, you got sent very quickly as well and you learned that just wasn’t how we were gonna race. It’s not been the scenario in the last several years, especially as we look at speedway racing, so that’s been the mindset. It’s been a little bit tough for me to be able to adapt on throwing the blocks, so that is something I would say is gonna have to step up and be more aggressive with. As far as making moves, I think a lot of it is gonna be similar. Maybe you don’t think so much about the intensity of where you’re heading, so if you’re looking at a middle lane going forward and know that that is a hornet’s nest, if you think it can net you out gains and there’s a heavy amount of risk involved, then you might just go for that at this point. I think it just makes it to where I don’t like tearing up race cars. Nobody does, but I think it will be more aggressive and that will be a more accepted outcome as long as you were trying to do something you feel like could have gotten you a win and could have gotten you in the playoffs. And we hope it does. We hope we’re able to be aggressive and we can get to the front and win a race and get into the playoffs right on the buzzer, so we’ll see if it works out. It won’t for some, but we just hope we’re one of the ones that it does.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN YOU SAY YOU’LL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO WIN A RACE? “There’s still a line to be drawn. You’re not gonna intentionally wreck somebody. It’s not going to come down to turning somebody just because you’re upset, but what you just said is accurate. You’re not gonna cut the same breaks you would. If you have a fender or half a car on somebody and they go and try to close the gap, you’re definitely not gonna lift at that point. It’s a hard balance there because it has the potential to mess you up at the same time. Push a fender in on a tire, cut a tire down, or have to pit out of sequence, that’s the part where it’s hard to adapt. I was never fortunate enough to run in the XFINITY Series once they were over to the composite bodies. It’s made them a lot more aggressive and a lot more recoverable from some bad situations, so that will be coming for us next year. We’ll be looking at how that affects our race cars and how much you can really get away with, but right now we’ve still got thin sheet metal. It gets very sharp when it’s pulled over, so it can mess you up very quickly, so that’s the balance. It’s how do I make sure we’re aggressive and we do everything in our power to move forward without hurting ourselves, and if you feel like somebody is not going to — not necessarily cut you a break, but is gonna try and force the issue and you’re confident that you’re there — you’re probably gonna stay in that. It means you’re probably gonna be more aggressive with going three or maybe four-wide at certain times of the race. I hope that’s not where we get too early on and end up like we did with over a dozen cars at the 500 early in the year, but I think that we’ll be able to go out and say that these are gonna be moves we’re more aggressive with. It’s kind of funny too, coming off of Michigan, it’s not a superspeedway it’s extremely fast, we’re not restricted like we are at Daytona or Talladega, but I was talking with my spotter on the right home and it’s very much a warm-up for Daytona. That place was wild. The restarts, getting going and trying to run up on some drafts and try a side draft. Everything we were doing is similar to Daytona, but you struggled more with the dirty air in the corners, but it was a good warm-up to what we have coming this weekend. We already had it in our mind that we were gonna be a little bit more aggressive in these last couple races anyway and we were able to do that and get up to some decent track position at the end of that race and that’s kind of what we’re looking at for Daytona. It’s the same thing — go out there and be a little bit more aggressive and when it comes down to the end of the race and you feel like you have an opportunity to win, no matter the risk at that point you’re probably going to take it because we are in a situation where there is one outcome that gets us into the playoffs and whatever we have to do to get to that point, we’ll go after that.”
HAVE YOU HAD MUCH CONVERSATION WITH BRAD ABOUT NEXT YEAR? “No, I haven’t had the one-on-one conversations just due to it’s a tough situation right now. We’re competitors. We’re at teams competing for wins every week and so it’s just a little bit of a tricky scenario. I’ve had some short conversations with him and we have talked that as we get farther into the end of our season that we can really step into these conversations a lot heavier and try to get an understanding, but from what I can see on the outside and what I’ve seen Brad do, I think that it’s gonna be a really positive thing for us. I’m really looking forward to it. I know Brad is very meticulous and a very sharp individual and I’m excited to see how that plays out for Roush Fenway Racing and going into the future for the whole company, for myself and what we’re able to do as we lean into this Next Gen car, so that’s my long way of saying, no, we haven’t had those talks yet, but I’m very much looking forward to them and I know they will be coming as we get a little farther into our season.”
IS DAYTONA THE RIGHT PLACE TO HAVE THE FINAL REGULAR SEASON RACE? “That is a very complex answer. First of all, part of it is based on opinions and if you asked me purely my opinion, I’m a short track guy and I think that we could have a lot of fun battling it out at a place like Bristol or even if you started talking about tracks you’d like to see added you start thinking about ORP. I can think of a half-dozen ARCA race tracks that we went to that I absolutely loved, but that’s purely my opinion side of it. To your point, talking about the speeds being up and cars getting airborne, obviously, that’s a side that NASCAR has worked really hard on preventing. I think that is why we’re seeing the little tweaks in the package as we head to Daytona this time around. They studied the crash from, I guess Logano’s crash from Talladega and this is something that has gone through and believe as an industry will help try and get rid of some of these airborne moments, and try and reduce the things that are creating them as well. That will never happen completely because we’re always gonna push to the absolute limit. Yes, emotions are gonna be a little bit higher here, so the chances of things happening are greater because of that, but it also creates a really exciting race and it is somewhat of an equalizer for a lot of the field. So, if you’re sitting there on the bubble, I would say you’re probably gonna raise your hand and say, ‘No, this is absolutely not where we want this race to be’ because there are so many cars that could sneak up, win a race and knock you out. And then for others that really enjoy superspeedway racing, they’re probably excited about it. There’s a lot of things that go into it. You could say it is or isn’t the right race. I think it’s gonna create a lot of excitement and we’re looking forward to getting down there with our partners and giving it a go, and then I guess to your other point about it being a little bit redundant about Daytona right now, I get it. It’s all we are looking forward to. I have not thought outside of Daytona to the next race at all yet. We’ve run a little bit of simulator work to try and get ready for some of the next races, but this is what’s on our minds because this is the big moment for us to try and make that last push into the playoffs. So, yeah, it’s going to be. We’re going to be talking about it a lot. We’re talking about it a lot during the week. We have been leading up to this for three or four weeks now. We knew that we had a couple of racetracks that we hoped we could go ahead and get a win in and be done with the Daytona discussion — go down there with the opportunity to race, and I guess we’re really in the same mindset. It’s nothing to lose. We’re going out there to win a race, so I don’t know that that really changed, but it would have been nice not to have the pressure of our whole season and trying to make it into the playoffs hinge just on this final weekend. There’s a lot going on to it. We’ve had a strong year, and that’s one thing I want to say. We’ve had a strong year. We’ve had a really strong start. Our team worked hard through the offseason to find speed in our race cars. We’ve been in the points battle for the playoffs all season long. It’s just one of those unique seasons where so many drivers have snuck a win or earned a win and have leapfrogged us and now we’re sitting here on the outside of the bubble. Most other years I would say that we’d be looking at pointing our way into the playoffs right now, but it’s just not the way that this one worked out. It’s on us to go get a win. It was on us to get a win before now and we haven’t achieved that, but we’re still working hard at it and we’re gonna go down to Daytona with an all-or-nothing mentality and see how it plays out. At superspeedways in general, Roush cars have been strong. We know we’re gonna have fast race cars. Ryan and I both have had speed at all of these races, so we’re excited about our opportunity. We’ll work together and we’ll see what we can pull out.”
WHEN YOU STRAP INTO THE CAR ON SATURDAY IS THAT THE MOST FUN A DRIVER HAS WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT THE ROAD IN FRONT OF YOU IS IN TERMS OF PLAYOFFS AND THE POSTSEASON? “I think the pressure and the stress of everything leading up to the weekend dwindles down at that point, which makes it a lot more enjoyable. Again, I can enjoy a superspeedway race. It’s not my favorite, but it can still make you happy and excited to go out there. I think it’s more or less, it’s not necessarily the track where we’re at, it’s our situation that’s going to make it where it’s going to be more about racing hard and not worrying about consequences. If you’re sitting there on that points bubble and you have to race differently, that’s hard because points racing in general is difficult as a competitor to really wrap your head around. I think about growing up I never raced for points in anything. We never purposely raced to try and win a track championship or any national events that were big ones. We wanted to go where everybody was showing up and go win that race, and so that was something that I grew up not really racing for points. It’s was you maximize your weekend and it will get you the maximum amount of points that you’re capable of. Winning every race will win you championships, so it’s something that I don’t have a whole lot of experience in doing and actually kind of dislike doing because of it, and I think that it always has to be on your mind as we look towards the playoffs, but in our scenario now we don’t have to think about the points side and we haven’t for a couple weeks now. Now, it’s go to the racetrack and figure out how to win a race.”
LAST YEAR IN THE DAYTONA RACE YOU WERE IN THE BOTTOM LINE WITH REDDICK SECOND WITH FIVE LAPS TO GO AND THEN WITH FOUR LAPS TO GO YOU GOT BROKEN UP. WHAT DID YOU DO RIGHT TO GET INTO THAT SITUATION AND WHAT WENT WRONG AT THE END? “If I remember correctly, I believe the 8 car had damage at the end that had made him pretty draggy, and so that was something that we talked about before that restart was that this is going to be a tough spot that we probably aren’t going to be able to push a damaged car. We’ve seen damaged car be just fine at the speedways, but I believe it was a quarter panel ballooned out and just creating a big parachute. Don’t quote me directly on that, but I believe there was enough damage that it had us worried about our situation, so we’ll go back and look at that and maybe you’ve got to get to a different lane quicker. Daytona is narrower than Talladega, so you don’t have those options quite as quickly, and when it comes to superspeedway racing I don’t really know that I could put it into words that it is that we try to do to put ourselves in position, but more times than not we find ourselves there. We work hard throughout the day so that when it comes down to the end that we have a chance to win the race, that we are in a good position. Talladega was one we were in a good position as well. We find ourselves up there in the right spots with fast race cars and good decision-making at whatever time of the race that is, so when I say we’re going down to Daytona and it’s even more aggressive, it’s all bets off, you still have to keep in mind what gets you to the final closing laps of a race with that opportunity, but, at the same time, get their quicker maybe or try and learn a little bit more earlier honestly so you’re ready for the end. You’re constantly learning at these races, but I don’t know that I can tell you what it is that we do, but we work hard to make the right decisions and calculate decisions throughout a race that when it comes down to those closing laps we’re in the talks and if a couple things roll out just right we’ll be sitting in victory lane. We’ve been really close to it several times and, in my mind, if you can be in the top five enough, eventually you’ll be the one that comes out on the best side of it. That’s our plan. That’s everyone’s plan, but we’ll see if we can apply the same things that we have been to get there and then see how much more aggressive we can be towards the last lap to get a checkered flag.”
DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO FALL BACK THE LAST COUPLE LAPS OF A STAGE OR IT DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE YOU CAN BE FIFTH AND PULL BACK TO 24TH AND STILL GET CAUGHT IN A WRECK IN THAT SITUATION? “That’s a fair question. Two parts to it. One, we’ve played that from a points side in the past and trying to make sure there at the end and said, All right if we’re looking at a ninth to 15-place stage finish, then if they start getting too dicey up front we’re probably gonna pull back and try to save the car, and we’ve done that. Strangely enough, these stages have been incredibly clean for several years now, so all that can change this weekend, but it has been surprisingly clean as we get to the end of the stages. It’s a valid question because, yes, ultimately there’s one lap that matters to us and stage points do not. I think we need to race hard and try and discover what we’re capable of and be in those situations, but if it’s something where you feel like four-wide at Daytona in the closing laps does not typically lead to a very good result for most people, especially when you’re on older tires at that point, so there will be a balance and we’ll make that decision on the fly. Right now, I’d say we just race hard to try and maximize every lap and if it gets to the point where it’s aggressive and we feel like we’re gonna be tearing stuff up, then we’ll try and back out. The Daytona 500, it’s usually the mindset there for me. It’s make sure you’re there at the end. I had a rough go my rookie season with Front Row at superspeedway racing in general. In the Daytona 500 we hit head-on. We barrel rolled at Talladega. I don’t think we finished but one of the four, so tried to dial back and learn from that season, so that we can be smarter about it and it’s for the most part worked. We’ve finished a vast majority of the races since then and finished them well and been in the hunt, so I don’t know. I don’t have all the right answers here. I don’t know if I have even the wrong answers, I’m just trying to figure out what it is that we need to do to be there and hopefully have a little bit of luck on our side at the same time.”
