After ending the 2023 season as one of top performing teams, 2024 has been a bit of a rollercoaster for the 31-year-old native of Prosper, Texas.
Buescher has gotten caught up in wrecks in the season opener at Daytona and at Las Vegas but in between he ran ninth at Atlanta and second most recently last weekend at Phoenix.
Buescher earned a career-best three wins last season and remains confident his team retains the ability to win. That’s what he is counting on to qualify for a return trip to the playoffs.
“The way I see it, we’re not points racing this year. We’ve got to win races and we’re capable of winning races and when we go do that, the rest will fall in line,” he said. “I don’t think we’re a team that’s going to sit here and say we’re going to have to battle for this bubble spot of 15th, 16th, 17th for points to try to break into the playoffs.
“That’s not going to be our season and with that being the case, I’m not worried about the (lack of) stage points and what we’ve been able to do there. I don’t like that it shows we haven’t been where we need to be.
“We’ve got a full dumpster around here of race car parts and that ultimately shows why we don’t have any more points to show for it.”
Chasing wins, not points
Currently, Buescher sits 16th in the series standings, which would net him the final playoff spot. But his tenuous points position would immediately get overridden with a victory, which would lock him into the 16-driver field.
The good news is Buescher has two races coming up that could provide excellent opportunities for his first win of the year.
Buescher is a former winner at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s race, and in recent seasons he has proved a very adept road course racer, which bodes well for the March 25 race at Circuit of the Americas.
This weekend’s spring race at Bristol returns to the concrete surface after three years of being run as a dirt event.
“Bristol has been my favorite race track for a really long period of time. I’ve absolutely loved it there from the first I was able to go,” Buescher said. “I’ve always run really well there.
“I just had it quick pretty early on. I’ve got that sword at home right now and got a Bristol win, won a Bristol Night Race, which has been the one race on the top of my list that I care for just a little bit more than anywhere else.
“It’s the most fun track we go to.”
While Buescher has seen more success at some of the Cup Series’ other road courses, he said he is determined to find similar results at COTA.
“It seems to be the one road course that hasn’t been our strongest. We’ve got to figure out why that is,” he said. “But we’re ready to go down there and turn that around, get through that conversation and start talking about winning in front of that home crowd.
“That would be a big moment.”
Where can the No. 17 improve?
Buescher said he can’t point to one specific area his team needs to improve this year – perhaps execution would be the best term. However, he knows he starts 2024 far better than he did last season and 2023 was his best Cup season yet.
“We’ve got to clean up and find a little bit of luck here or there. We’ve got to make better decisions at certain times and just be smarter in ways and work harder, clean up,” he said.
“It’s going to be tricky, but I’m not going to read much into it right now. Like I said, we’re definitely not going to start having points talks this early in the season. That’s not my speed at all.”
