Buescher's mission at Richmond: "Stay out of trouble"

While Buescher still has work to do in Saturday night’s race – he sits just 11 points over teammate David Ragan who is currently 30th – the past several weeks have reinforced his belief that once in the Chase, his No. 34 Ford team may be able to make some noise.

Should Buescher qualify for the Chase, he will become the first driver in the Front Row organization’s history to do so.

As our luck would go for the year we had the issue and now we are just barely in at this point.

Chris Buescher on Michigan issues

Following his Pocono win, Buescher struggled with a 30th-place finish on the road course at Watkins Glen, N.Y., but then rebounded with a fifth-place finish at Bristol, Tenn.

He had a fast car again the next week at Michigan, but had an engine issue relegated him to 35th and his was 17th last weekend at Darlington, S.C., finishing on the lead lap.

“I said it even before Pocono that we had been heading in the right direction for a while and we had some really good runs without the finishes to show for it,” Buescher said Friday at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.

“As recently as Michigan, we struggled all day trying to get that issue resolved there at a place we easily could have come out with a top-20 finish and wouldn’t even have had to worry about our points situation (now). As our luck would go for the year we had the issue and now we are just barely in at this point.”

Finding some extra speed

The positive of the last few weeks for Buescher is the speed his team has found has translated to a variety of tracks.

“A lot of tracks that we are going back to for the second time finally. It is places that we should be able to compete well at,” he said. “The 1.5-mile program over at Front Row Motorsport and Roush Fenway has gotten a lot better throughout the year.

“It is a way to make sure we move through the first round and try to get in to the top-12 and see where it goes from there.”

Protecting his position

But before he can think too much down the road, Buescher, 23, said his first objective in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 is to “stay out of trouble.”

His team struggled in the spring race here, which was run during the day, and ended up 34th.

“We are going to control what we can control and do our best to have a good, clean race. This is historically not one of my better tracks but we have been making progress,” Buescher said. “Throughout practice we were better than earlier in the spring. I am happy about that.

“I wish it was a little cooler so we knew what we would have when it comes around to race time but at the end of the day we are all in the same boat and we will all figure it out together.”

Buescher will start from 31st on the grid tomorrow night.