Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
Going into the final event of the season with a sizable points lead, Chris Buescher is focused on one thing alone this weekend – scoring the 2015 NASCAR XFINITY Series Championship.
“Just been a pretty solid season for us,” he commented. “Been really happy with everything we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Finishing off last season strong, Buescher came out of the gate this season with back-to-back top-five finishes. He then kept the consistency going over the course of the season, scoring two wins, 11 top-fives and 20 top-10s thus far in 2015. Buescher says the success has come with building better chemistry between himself, crew chief Scott Graves, and the guys, as well as being able to execute well with solid pit stops and being very consistent over the season while steadily gaining speed.
“We’re looking forward to getting to Homestead and finishing it off,” he commented. “One of my favorite racetracks that we go to, probably my favorite mile-and-a-half. It’s got an asphalt that’s worn out and makes for better racing from some of the other places we go to. Excited to get down there for this weekend and finish up the season and hopefully everything works out.”
Buescher could easily lock up the championship simply with a top-15 finish. However, he was adamant earlier this week that he will not change his approach to this weekend just due to the gap, as he hates points racing. Though with that said, he did admit that they will be a little careful in how aggressive they are.
“I want to go have a good day, and I feel like this has been a good racetrack for us,” he said. “I’ve only run one race there but had a lot of fun last year, first and foremost, and was able to get a top 5 out of it. So I feel like this should be a good weekend for us. We just have to continue doing what we’ve done all year.
“As far as differences go, we’ve just got to keep in mind our situation. Try not to be four wide on a restart and try not to run up against the fence early in the race. I know there’s been a lot of blown tires there just from being too close to the fence and the debris up there.”
If Buescher is able to score the title, it’d be huge for the young driver, especially considering that he does not have any plans locked down for 2016. There was discussions a couple months ago that he’d return to the XFINITY Series in 2016, however those plans remain up in the air currently.
“I would have loved to have had it done about a month ago,” he commented. “It’s been a little bit stressful from that standpoint, just haven’t really gotten the answers I was hoping for. Haven’t really gotten sponsorship stuff worked out for next year like we were hoping for. We have some partial stuff that could work in the Cup Series or the XFINITY Series. We have different scenarios working out, but nothing is even close to the point of finalizing that that I can even talk about. I honestly don’t have a good answer as to where it’s going next year. I felt better about it three weeks ago and since then things have taken a lot of turns.”
