James Buescher race report: Phoenix International Raceway

[NickHolt]

James Buescher race report: Phoenix International Raceway

 

AVONDALE, Ariz. (November 9, 2014) - Looking to recover from a disappointing finish last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, James Buescher and the RAB Racing/Rheem team used a late-race green-white-checkered flag restart to climb their way back inside the top-15. Buescher, 24, started the second to last race of the season in the 16th position. The Texas native wasted no time moving forward through the field, before lap 10, Buescher had already worked his way up to the 12th running position. With the hot Arizona sun beating down on the 1.0-mile tri-oval, the raceway was getting slick and the No. 99 Rheem team battled a loose-handling Camry the entire race. Crew chief Matt Lucas would get a handful of opportunities to fine tune the Rheem Camry throughout the scheduled 200-lap race and gave Buescher a Toyota Camry in which he could move through the field with. While running in the 14th position, during a late-race pit stop, Buescher slid through his slick concrete pit box. Positioned too close to the pit wall to change all four tires, Lucas called a quick audible ordering Buescher to return back to the pits to complete the four tire stop. Restarting in 16th position, at the tail end of the field, Buescher and the Rheem team had their work cut out for them to gain the track position that was lost. Buescher was up for the task and masterfully worked his way through the lap down cars to get into position to once again crack the top-15. Just before the scheduled white flag could be displayed, a slow car on the track brought out the yellow flag and was once again to set up a green-white-checkered restart. Restarting on the inside in the 15th position, Buescher dove deep into Turn 1 to force three-wide, Buescher battled door-to-door to the checkered flag; and was able to secure a 14th-place finish. With the finish, Buescher unofficially moved into a tie for 10th-place in the driver point's standings.

James Buescher Quote:

"I about threw away a decent finish for us at the end but I'm happy that the yellow came out at the end to set up that green-white-checkered restart and put us in position to regain what we lost. It was really challenging out late in the race with the sun setting against the grandstands and pit road being so slick, I just slid through the box. I'm glad that we were able to overcome that. My Rheem team prepared me a solid race car this weekend. We'll take this result and hope we can build on it to close out the season with a top-10 in Homestead."

Upcoming Race:

The NASCAR Nationwide Series will wrap up the 2014 season in South Florida at Homestead-Miami Speedway, on Saturday, November 15. The Ford Ecoboost 300 can be seen on ESPN2 starting at 4:00pm EDT. The event can also be heard on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and MRN Radio.