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BUESCHER BATTLES HANDLING TO NAB TOP-15 FINISH IN FINALE
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (Nov. 19, 2011) – Pulling double duty during the 2011 season finale weekend, James Buescher made his first start with the No. 32 Dollar General team in the Ford 300 on Saturday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway. While he had plenty of seat time during the weekend, the final of the two NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) practices was cancelled because of rain, limiting the time he had with crew chief Trent Owens and the Dollar General team. After qualifying 19th for the 300-mile event, Buescher struggled with a very tight-handling race car throughout the event. Never giving up however, Buescher fought hard and scored a 14th-place finish in only his 11th NNS start of the season.
Due to the weather that moved through the area over Championship weekend, NASCAR mandated a competition caution at lap 35 to check tire wear. The team waited through two early cautions on laps two and 13 to be able to come down pit road to make changes on an already tight-handling Dollar General machine. When the competition caution was shown to the field, Buescher was scored in the 22nd position and Owens called his driver to pit lane for numerous changes including an air pressure, track bar and wedge adjustment along with the addition of spring rubbers in the right rear of the car. Buescher rejoined the field in the 19th spot for the lap-39 restart.
Buescher continued to fight with the handling of his Dollar General Chevy and had fallen a lap down by the team’s green-flag pit stop on lap 85. Owens and team took another big swing at trying to help Buescher with his car, making a significant track bar adjustment along with changing four tires and adding fuel. When stops cycled through, Buescher was scored in the 24th position, one lap down. As the race progressed, the young driver reported to Owens that the changes seemed to help at the start of a run, but as the laps wore on, the tight condition quickly returned.
Fortunately, on lap 174, the team caught a break when the caution came out and Buescher was in position to take advantage of the Lucky Dog award and could rejoin competitors on the lead lap. Owens called his driver down pit road one final time to try and assist Buescher with the handling of his car. After another track bar and air pressure adjustment, Buescher took the lap-179 restart in the 20th spot.
The caution was shown to the field one final time for an incident that Bueshcer was able to escape and take advantage of. As cars were wrecking beside and behind him, he maneuvered the Dollar General machine into the 13th spot. Remaining on track to keep their position, Buescher took the final restart in that position. By lap 197, Buescher had fallen to 17th, but in the remaining three circuits, he fought back to take the final checkered flag of 2011 in 14th.
“This team fought hard for this finish tonight,” said Buescher. “I really wish we would have been able to have that second practice session on Friday, but it seems the weather had other ideas. We made a qualifying run and it was really loose so I think maybe Trent (Owens, crew chief) tightened me up a little too much to be sure we weren’t loose in qualifying. They never gave up though during the race, continually making the car better over the 200 laps. I’m hopeful this was a good learning experience for all of us as we head into the off season and get ready for 2012.”