Chris Buescher registered his first NASCAR XFINITY Series championship today, giving Ford Performance a sweep of both major championships after Team Penske clinched the owners’ title two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway.
VICTORY LANE TV INTERVIEW
WHEN YOU LEFT HOME AT 16-YEARS-OLD, DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD END UP HERE, CELEBRATING A CHAMPIONSHIP? “Well, I sure hoped so. I am glad she let me. I think she is okay with it now. I have to thank my parents so much for the opportunity to be here and leave home and do this. That was such an amazing race, just being careful. Our Fastenal Mustang had good speed in it, we just had to be careful out there. I can’t say thank you enough to Fastenal coming on board the last race, Ford and Wiley X and XFINITY for their first year sponsoring the series and it is pretty amazing to be in this position.”
THROUGHOUT THIS CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE YOU WERE SO CALM. “I did a good job masking it didn’t I? I was a little nervous. All things considered that was exactly what we needed to do and we knew that and knew we were capable of doing it. I am glad we could pull it off for all the people that were on board all year, AdvoCare, Roush Performance, Cheez-It and all the fans. I know the weather wasn’t ideal today but they hung in there with us and we made it through this thing and get to celebrate”
IT WAS A DICEY MOMENT WHEN YOU PITTED AND NOBODY ELSE DID AND YOU HAD TO MAINTAIN POSITION TO GET THAT LUCKY DOG. HOW TOUGH WAS THAT? “We got what we could get on that one. Luckily it was just us and the 01 at that point and we knew that we had been running pretty well and could get that spot and the caution came out pretty quickly. It was exactly what we needed. There at the end it was 21 laps of Scott and the spotter telling me to just stay right there because I didn’t need anything else.”
YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT THE XFINITY VERSUS CUP FOR ROUSH FENWAY AND THE MEANING FOR YOU TO BRING A CHAMPIONSHIP TO JACK ROUSH AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU TO DO THAT FOR A MAN THAT TOOK A CHANCE ON YOU. “I am blessed to be here. It is so cool to be able to pull it off. It is so nice to have everybody out here to support us and be with us for this accomplishment.”
YOU SAID YOU HATE POINTS RACING. YOU STILL HATE IT? “I am not a points racer. I don’t like it. It is not the most fun way to run the last 10 races of the season but it is important. This is what we have been fighting for since February and Daytona and these guys have done such a great job and stuck in there with us all year and had no mechanical failures or DNF’s. It is a huge accomplishment for our team.”