Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Daytona Media Day
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion – “I am a little behind on social media. I need to catch up. I am on Twitter and Facebook and barely Instagram and that is it. I am not going any farther. I tried Snap Chat for a little while but it just wasn’t for me. There are a lot of other ones out there that keep popping up but I am done. I’ve got my three platforms and I will stick to that.”
WHAT KIND OF APPEARANCES DO YOU LIKE TO DO BEST? “The smaller ones are nice because you get to sit down and talk. We did some stuff in Vegas where we did breakfast and sat down and got to talk to everybody and get to know them a little more versus just shaking hands and moving on down the line. I think those ones for me are more enjoyable.”
WHAT IS A REALISTIC GOAL FOR YOU THIS YEAR? “I don’t know that I am looking to be too realistic with it. I want to go out here and we are obviously in the rookie of the year contention and we want to win that and at the same time we want to be able to win a race and hopefully get into the Chase. That is probably a strong goal for a first season and new guys and everybody trying to get used to each other but I think if you achieve your goals too early then you don’t have something to shoot for and it can slow you down. We will see if we can get to that point. I know it is going to be a long shot but I am looking forward to this year. So far it has gone really well and it has been smooth. I feel like it is something we should be very competitive with as we build some chemistry.”
HOW ABOUT RACING AGAINST THE BIGGER DOGS. HOW DO YOU WEIGH THAT? DO YOU HAVE TO KIND OF WATCH YOURSELF FOR AWHILE AND NOT GET TOO AGGRESSIVE OR DO YOU GO FOR IT? “I think you always have to be aggressive but everybody remembers being the rookie in the series and everyone remembers being in a series a long time and the rookies coming in and how the general attitude was toward that. We have to be respectful is the big part of it. We can be aggressive and race hard but in the end we need to make sure that everybody is treating everyone with the same respect that we would want in return. I think that is easy enough. I’ve talked to a lot of guys since Homestead last season and was out in Vegas for the championship week out there and I got to know a lot of them and talk to a lot that I haven’t been able to in years past. I feel like we are in good shape here. I think winning the XFINITY title last year will help. I feel like you get a little big of recognition from that to the point where you might end up with a drafting partner at Daytona. We will find out pretty shortly though.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT NASCAR’S END OF THE RACE CHANGES? “I actually like it. It is something to me where we have seen in the past where it has been hard to make the green-white-checker work without tearing up a lot of equipment and I think this will minimize that but also give everyone a chance to race to that overtime line. I think it is good. We watched it unfold in the Unlimited and we have gotten a little more clarification on some of the what-if scenarios. What if the scenario plays out and the leader is just right before it? What reasons will there be for the caution to actually come out? Is it a big wreck or just a spin? All of that will be case by case I am sure as we go, but everything I have seen seems like it will be very helpful.”
YOU ARE PART OF A TALENTED ROOKIE CLASS THIS YEAR. DOES HAVING COMPETITION AMONG YOUR OWN LEVEL MAKE THINGS MORE EXCITING? “Yeah, for sure. And it is guys that I have been racing with a long time. It is not like it is new to me. We have raced with Chase and Brian for the last several years on the XFINITY side and we have race3d with Jeffrey Earnhardt and Blaney all the way from legends cars. I feel like it is a group of guys that we know how to race around and can trust and we will have a really good time racing for the Rookie of the Year.”
LAST YEAR YOU HAD TO JUMP INTO THE 34 WITH VERY LITTLE NOTICE. WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES THAT GO INTO JUMPING INTO ANOTHER CAR FOR ANOTHER TEAM YOU AREN’T FAMILIAR WITH? “A situation like last year, through unfortunate circumstances ended up in a rush to get everything handled and up and running and that is difficult just from the aspect of trying to get to know who you are around. It is a great bunch of guys over there. I have a couple of them still on the 34 for this season. It is just a matter of getting to know everybody and get that feel. We see it all the time with a crew chief change how hard it is to change one person and be able to adapt to that and get that chemistry rolling so imagine a whole team on no notice. I think that was the hardest part of it besides actually getting fitted up and ready to go. Once we were able to do that I thought we had some good runs and a lot of fun doing it and I am glad I got to because it is really going to help for the beginning of this season.”
TREVOR BAYNE MENTIONED THAT ONE TIME HE HAD TO DO THAT AND ENDED UP HAVING AN ENGINE ISSUE AND HE THOUGHT IT WAS BECAUSE OF THE GAUGES AND HAVING TO GET USED TO THAT STUFF AND THE DIFFERENCES. DID YOU EXPERIENCE ANYTHING LIKE THAT? “Not really on that side I guess. Being that it was out of a Ford and into a Ford a lot of our engine parameters are similar between the two series’. The track bar adjuster was a big change for me and I had to get used to actually being able to adjust that and not over adjust. It turns out I was way under adjusting where everyone else was moving it a lot more. Just small things like that really didn’t throw a curve at you but just took a little bit of getting used to.”
ARE YOU PRETTY PUMPED ABOUT RUNNING THE DAYTONA 500? “Yeah, for sure. I was thinking about it the other day and it was four years ago, 2012 was the year we won the ARCA championship. We finished 20th here that day. We were running good and got into an incident there at the very end and I remember riding back up to Charlotte after that one and just realizing how big of an opportunity we had missed and still we were able to pull off a championship that season so it wasn’t all bad. It is only four years later and we are sitting here in a Cup car with Love’s Travel Stops and getting ready to run my first Daytona 500 so obviously the biggest race in our sport and we get to be a part of it. The best part is we are locked in. For the first time since I have been running in a NASCAR division down here I don’t have to worry about making the field on time. Everyone is aware of the one that bit me on the XFINITY side. We are in this race and get to go out there and run the Daytona 500.”
WILL YOU HAVE BUTTERFLIES SUNDAY MORNING? “I am sure. I typically do every weekend. It will be good. We will figure out how everyone will draft and how things will settle out and hopefully be there at the end.”
DO YOU GET ANY RESPECT OUT THERE BEING THE XFINITY CHAMPION? “The yellow stripes on the bumper do not make it easy. I do expect that to be a little bit of an issue and luckily I do have a handful of good friends out there in the field that will be able to help as we go through there. On the other end I have talked to a lot of the guys on the champions tour out in Vegas with all the Cup guys out there and was able to really sit down and talk and try to just pick their brain and just figure out where we needed to be. I think respect is a huge part of the sport and I think the XFINITY championship does help that when we get started.”
WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH ROUSH FENWAY RACING BEEN LIKE? “It has been great. They have been really good to me from the beginning. I started there with ARCA and been there about seven years now. I have been there a long time. Not necessarily at the NASCAR level for a long time but I am looking forward to being there a lot longer.”
