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Buescher finishes 12th in NCWTS season finale at Homestead.
James Buescher and the No. 31 Turner Motorsports team rolled into the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season finale in South Florida eyeing their first championship. Buescher had a mathematical chance at the title, and was confident his Exide Batteries Chevrolet would have a strong run on Friday night. The team started from the pole position and ran inside the top-15 all evening taking the checkered flag in the 12th position.
The black and blue Chevrolet team had one practice session on Friday afternoon to dial their Silverado in for the 134-lap event. Buescher radioed to crew chief, Michael Shelton, early in the session explaining his truck was loose on entry into the corners and tight through the center. The No. 31 Exide Batteries crew went to work making changes to both the front and rear suspension components hoping to dial their machine in. By the end of practice, Buescher had his Exide Batteries Chevrolet at the top of the leader board and the team was confident they would have a strong run on Friday night.
The Homestead-Miami Speedway was plagued with a rain filled afternoon and NASCAR was forced to cancel the qualifying session which allowed Buescher to start from the pole position.
Buescher led the field to the green flag and immediately pulled out to an early lead. He radioed to his team explaining the truck was really good and the track had a ton of overall grip. Buescher paced the field for the first 18 circuits around the 1.5-mile speedway.
The caution was displayed to the field on lap 20 and Buescher prepared to roll down the pit lane for service. He slid into his pit stall on the very next lap for routine pit service. The team changed four tires and filled the truck with racing fuel. They also made a slight chassis adjustment hoping to keep up with the changing track conditions.
Buescher restarted the event in the third spot on lap 23. It only took three laps for him to retake the top spot and methodically started pulling away from the field. During the next green flag segment, Buescher explained his Exide Batteries Chevrolet was losing front grip and he was really having to wait on the truck to rotate before he could get back to the accelerator pedal. The tight-handling condition caused Buescher to fall back into the clutches of the 36-truck field.
The team made a scheduled green flag pit stop on lap 72 taking on four fresh Goodyear tires and Sunoco racing fuel. The crew again made a chassis adjustment to the Exide Batteries Chevrolet trying to find that elusive front grip.
The 21-year-old spent the next 30-laps trying different lines on the progressively banked race track looking for speed. He ran both the very top and low lines seeing if one line would help his machine get through the corners. Buescher again radioed to Shelton explaining his machine was just too tight which was impeding his forward progress.
On lap 119, another heavy rain drenched the South Florida speedway and NASCAR was forced to call the event early, putting Buescher 12th in the running order. Buescher finished the season third in the championship standings behind Austin Dillon and Johnny Sauter. 2011 marks Buescher’s best points finish to date.
“Obviously we wanted to end the season as the champion but I am proud of everyone at Turner Motorsports. They have worked their butts off this year. We have had a great year. I want to congratulate Austin [Dillon] and everyone at RCR on winning the championship. I also want to thank everyone at Exide Batteries for all of their support. Without great partners we would not be able to have years like this one. We will work hard over the winter to improve our program and be back in February ready to battle for the 2012 championship.”