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Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes
Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, Tenn.
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Chris Buescher | No. 34 CSX ‘Play It Safe’ Ford
“I always look forward to Bristol. It’s like a home track, like how we grew up racing. It’s a short track, high-banked, lot of speed, lot of momentum. People have mixed feelings on it, but I like that it has a wider groove on it and you’re able to move around and make things work. Going back to ARCA, we had Salem and Winchester as our high-banked short tracks, and they were a little rougher around the edges. You go to Bristol and it’s an immaculate facility, the track surface is in great shape, and it seems to put on some really good races. It feels like going back home.
“I’m looking forward to representing CSX at Bristol. They’re an important partner with Front Row Motorsports and I’m proud to drive the ‘Play It Safe’ car. One of the things we’re promoting on the car this week is CSX’s ‘Trees for Tracks’ initiative. In addition to the thousands of trees they’re already planting, they’re going to plant 50 more, one for every 10 laps of the race on Sunday.”
JUST THE FACTS: Sunday’s race will be Buescher’s first Sprint Cup start at Bristol Motor Speedway … The race will be the 22-year-old’s fourth race with Front Row Motorsports, filling in while David Ragan subs for the injured Kyle Busch in the No. 18 car … Buescher has three XFINITY Series starts at the .533-mile oval, including two top-10 finishes … CSX returns to the No. 34 Ford with its “Play It Safe” message … CSX is also promoting its “Trees for Tracks” program, in which it will plant 42,000 trees by 2018, through “Trees for Laps” — planting 50 more trees, representing one tree for every 10 laps of the race.
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Cole Whitt | No. 35 Tweaker Energy Shot Ford
“Bristol is always challenging because it’s really easy to lose your cool there. It can test your patience. Especially when you’re all running single-file, and you come up on a car that’s a little slower than you but you can’t do anything with him. I’ve learned a lot since my first couples races there, so I’ll go there with more confidence than I did last year. A lot can happen in 500 laps, so you just have to run your own race.
“We’ve got Tweaker Energy Shot on board with us for Bristol. It’s their Sprint Cup debut, so we’ll work hard to get a good showing for them. Five-hundred laps at Bristol can be a long day, so fans need to make sure they grab a Tweaker Energy Shot before the race.”
JUST THE FACTS: Whitt has two Sprint Cup career starts at Bristol Motor Speedway … His top Sprint Cup finish at the .533-mile oval is 30th (2014) … Whitt has three XFINITY Series starts at Bristol: one top-10, two top-15 and three top-20 finishes … Tweaker Energy Shot makes its Sprint Cup debut as primary sponsor of the No. 35 Ford … Whitt will sign autographs at Food City Race Night on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. in Knoxville and Friday from 7 to 8 p.m. at Bristol Motor Speedway.
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David Gilliland | No. 38 MDS Transport Ford
“Bristol is my favorite racetrack, so I always look forward to it. Over the years, the groove has changed, and it changes where you want to run. With them grinding the track and everything else they’ve done to it, the top has got a lot of speed. You just carry so much momentum off the corners. The good cars are still running on the bottom and making passes, so that’s always your goal.
“It’s a very physically and mentally demanding race. You’ve got to be patient. It’s easy to catch someone, but if you want to bump him and pass him, you can’t do that at the top because there’s nowhere to go. It’s just hard to be patient at a track where you’re running 14- or 15-second laps.”
JUST THE FACTS: Gilliland has 17 Sprint Cup starts at Bristol Motor Speedway … He has one top-10 and two top-20 finishes at the .533-mile oval … His best finish at Bristol is ninth (2008) … MDS Transport returns as primary sponsor of the No. 38 Ford.
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About Front Row Motorsports
Front Row Motorsports is a race-winning organization competing in NASCAR’s premier Sprint Cup Series, fielding the No. 34, the No. 35 and the No. 38 Fords. The team is owned by Bob Jenkins and is headquartered just outside of Charlotte, N.C. FRM was named to INC Magazine’s “INC 5000” list in 2012, recognizing the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. The team’s partnership base is representative of more than $200 billion of the U.S. economy and includes organizations such as Ford Motor Company, Love’s Travel Stops, Colgate-Palmolive, CSX Transportation, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s. Visit teamfrm.com.
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