Buescher Limps Home in the 26th-Place at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON, Iowa (August 3, 2014) – The NASCAR Nationwide Series made their second trip to the 0.875-mile short track of Iowa Speedway on Saturday evening. For the second time this season, The No. 99 RAB Racing team and James Buescher would carry the Ruud brand on their Toyota Camry for the U.S. Cellular 250. During knockout qualifying, Buescher and the No. 99 Ruud team made multiple qualifying attempts to make it to the final round of qualifying, however the 24-year-old came up just shy and would line up in the 18th starting spot for Saturday evenings race. When the 40-car field was released for the 250-lap U.S. Cellular 250 Buescher settled into a groove and felt his No. 99 Ruud Camry out. Buescher’s initial report back to the Ruud crew was that his Camry was loose entering the corner, tight in the center and loose off. Crew chief Matt Lucas and the Ruud crew developed a plan to adjust their Toyota during the team’s first pit stop on lap 53. Buescher, who now had fresh Goodyear tires and a full-load of Sunoco racing fuel, started to make his move to the front of the field and found himself running in the 13th position as the sun started to set over the track. With the track gaining more grip as the night wore on, Buescher continued to search around for the best line to make his Ruud Camry the most neutral. When the fourth of five yellow flags was displayed with just 65 laps to go, Buescher was called back down pit road for the team’s final stop to adjust on his tight-handling race car. The Ruud crew gave the 24-year-old four fresh tires, fuel and made another chassis adjustment for the final run to the end. Buescher went on to restart in the 14th position and went to work at trying to crack the top-10 for the first time in the evening. Buescher eventually made it up to the 12th-place but was in a heavy battle with multiple cars for that position. With under 10-laps remaining in the 250-lap race at Iowa Speedway, Buescher and the No. 99 Ruud Camry was sent into the outside retaining wall after Buescher misjudged how close he was to another competitor. The Ruud Toyota Camry suffered severe right side and tail end damage forcing Buescher to pit road for lengthy repairs. Buescher went on to limp across the finish line in the 26th-place, three laps down.

James Buescher Quote: 

“It looks like our bad luck continues to follow us. I really hate it for Ruud and my No. 99 guys, they worked really hard to prepare me a solid Toyota Camry, we were on our way to having a very respectable finish and I kind of messed it up. I knew the No. 62 was somewhere on the top-line, I just thought I was clear before I really was. My Ruud team worked extremely hard all weekend to prepare a solid Ruud Toyota Camry and allowed for us to contending for a top-10, but I guess that’s racing. We had a bunch of guest from Ruud in the stands and it would have been great to give them a great finish. Our team will move on from this and go into Watkins Glen next weekend looking to secure a solid finish for everyone involved.”

Upcoming Race:

The NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to the Finger Lakes region of New York State for the second road-course race of 2014. The Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International can be seen on Saturday, August 9 at 2:00pm ET. The event can also be heard on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, channel 90 and on MRN Radio.