By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
FORT WORTH, Texas – This time of the year, it’s a homecoming feeling for Prosper, Texas native Chris Buescher, who is looking to get back to victory lane in the Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Buescher, who came up one spot short of ending his winless streak at Talladega Superspeedway last Sunday, is also looking to get his first-ever top-10 finish at the 1.5-mile circuit.
In 16 previous starts, Buescher’s luck has been anything but peak. A 14th place result in 2023 is his best outing to date and the only time he ever led at TMS, with two laps led to his name.
Tire failures, being spun on pit road, and the dreadful moisture in Fall 2020, the race which took three days to finish, have plagued the man sitting seventh in points over the years.
“We’ve had very few days here where we haven’t been competitive, but the stats don’t show that when you look at the finish results. I’d love to fix that this go-around,” Buescher commented during Saturday morning’s media availability.
“It’s a tough place to get right in the first place and it’s a tough place to not have everything go against us.”
Despite having horrible luck in Texas, Buescher always looks forward seeing his family and friends, but also the challenges the track provides, including the track surface.
Buescher cited both Kentucky Speedway and Rockingham Speedway as an example of the difficulty Texas provides as the surface gets older. To the point, it becomes a rather fun venue to race, clawing to stay on the bottom lane.
“It’s not been our best track by the finishes,” said Buescher. “We’ve had some rough luck at home. We will be fast again this weekend. It’s 5/3 Day on Sunday, so it’s a pretty neat tie-in (with Fifth Third Bank, Buescher’s sponsor) and it’d be better in victory lane.”
As Dale Earnhardt once said, “second place is just the first-place loser.”
The mantra ended up falling on Buescher’s laps as he was the one who ended up runner-up to race winner and Sunday’s Cup pole sitter Carson Hocevar at Talladega last Sunday. The lane didn’t stick together with Buescher and wound up losing by inches.
The loss stung for the 33-year-old and felt he would’ve been best off finishing third instead.
“I told a lot of people this week I wished it was third instead. If it’s going to be that close, you almost wished it wouldn’t been. To be in the hunt for it and come up just that little bit short, it definitely hurts at the end of the day,” Buescher explained.
“When you go speedway racing, it’s kind of that drag race to the end and you always feel like you have a little less of control of your own destiny in those moments. It doesn’t make you as mad as long afterwards, but it still stings for sure.
“Would’ve loved to have some teammates up there with us. Surely, it could’ve helped our outcome and would’ve made a run there at the end. But a solid day for our entire group. We did everything right on the day and executed at a high level. We were in the hunt all the way to the checkered flag.”
Buescher was confident his No. 17 Fifth Third Ford Mustang Dark Horse was going to be fast and indeed backed it up in qualifying where he’ll roll off third in Sunday’s 267-lap race (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1).
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