Mid-Race Contact Derails Buescher’s Promising Run at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (October 5, 2014) – James Buescher and the No. 99 Ruud Toyota team were on their way to having a solid finish when contact with the wall just past the halfway point of the Kansas Lottery 300 derailed the Ruud team’s efforts up to that point. Buescher started Saturday afternoon’s race from the 16th position, while early in the 200-lap race, on lap 10, Buescher radioed to the crew that the Ruud Camry was really loose in traffic. Once Buescher got into clean air he came back on the radio and reported that his Toyota Camry felt pretty good. Crew Chief Matt Lucas however wanted to give his 24-year-old driver a little more security with a track bar adjustment during the first pit stop of the afternoon. Lucas would get plenty more opportunities to fine-tune the Ruud Camry under a caution filled race. On lap 91, Buescher and the Ruud team endured a close call when a spinning car narrowly clipped the No. 99 Camry. Buescher went on to restart inside the top-10 and looked poised to stay there running solid lap times all afternoon. After slipping back to the 11th position, on lap 102, Buescher’s luck ran out once again when the air was taken off of No.99’s left-rear of his Toyota Camry causing Buescher to make contact with the outside retaining wall. The race stayed green and Buescher was forced to hit pit road for repairs. The Texas native rejoined the field in the 26th position, three laps down to the leader. Looking to salvage any position they could, Buescher and the RAB Racing team stayed on-track and limped home to a disappointing 21st-place finish.

James Buescher Quote: 

“Unfortunately the bad luck seems to keep following my RAB Racing team. Just another week that my RAB Racing team prepared a solid race car for me and it got away from us. I was really hoping to get a solid finish for my sponsors and my team, they’ve been working really hard all year and I would like nothing more than to reward them with the results that they deserve. We’ll head to Charlotte next week where we came up just shy of a top-10 earlier this season and hopefully perform well for all the family, friends and sponsors that will be in town and get us another top-10 or even top-five finish.”

Upcoming Race:

The NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to the backyard of many NASCAR teams next week when the series invades Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Drive for the Cure 300 can be seen on Friday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m. EDT on ESPN2. The event can also be heard on SiriusXM Satellite Radio channel 90 and on PRN Radio.