Chris Buescher enters Sunday’s Chicago Street Race ninth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings and without a victory this season.
With eight races remaining in the regular season, Buescher knows what he and his RFK Racing Ford team need to do to secure a place in the 10-race run to the championship.
“Win. It’s a must-win. I don’t think you can look at it and say it’s not,” Buescher said during a Wednesday afternoon media call. “I think we need to go to the race track and we need to take chances and be fast. All of that brings points with it and if that’s what we have to fall back to, then I hope we fall back and say that it was enough and we were proud that we were fast enough to earn those points in these stretches.
“I know over the last five weeks I saw a stat where our team has put more points on the board than anybody else in the garage, so that’s not because we’re points racing,” Buescher noted. “That’s because we are bringing fast Mustangs to the racetrack. We’re executing at a high level across the board and we’re working on just getting these small details, fine-tuning this last little bit to where we can be in contention to win or put a trophy up on the shelf and that ultimately is the lock in.”
Buescher has been very consistent on road courses during his career, but he knows the Chicago Street Race is something a little different.
“You know what, road racing is road racing in general, but street racing is its own animal,” he explained. “There are things that you can certainly take about it. I’m hoping you’re not asking me for betting advice right now (laughing). I got the refresher. I know you did, but I think that the street course does present its own challenges in that sense, that you have to be a little bit more disciplined there. There are drivers that are very fast and maybe a little bit out of control in a lot of road courses.
“Most all road courses give you the ability to be a little out of control at times and not pay a penalty, so you have to be right on your marks here and that is a massive challenge of it. I think that’s why we saw SVG (Shane van Gisbergen) come in the first race and take everybody to school. Nobody had that experience to figure it out and then Mexico City happens, so I’m not sure what to make of it. Ultimately, there’s a lot of things that tell me we’re gonna be very competitive as we come into the Chicago Street Course and a lot of things that will line up based on just general road racing.”
Buescher also said he prepares a little differently for Chicago than other events.
“We literally just came across the street from the simulator for Chicago, so obviously that’s in full swing at this moment and has been for several weeks now,” he said. “We always put in a little bit more time for road courses, just to be familiar with the racetrack again. We’ll definitely be out there on the track walk with I’m sure a lot of you all as we try and see which barriers got placed in slightly different areas or whatever has changed for brake markers, road surface, whatever it may be.”
