Chris Buescher: 'It never gets old' going home to Texas
Growing up an hour away from Texas Motor Speedway in Prosper, Texas makes this the definition of a home track for Chris Buescher.
Many drivers hail from the same state as NASCAR tracks but not all grew up at a track they now race on Sundays.
Buescher turned a lot of laps during his youth at the fifth-mile track, dirt track and quarter-mile frontstretch loop at Texas Motor Speedway.
“Oh, it never gets old. It’s always nice to come back home where it started,” Buescher said before practice on Friday morning. “Actually as we were riding in here, the Legends cars were practicing on the fifth mile behind Big Hoss, which brings back memories really quickly there. I’ve probably run thousands and thousands of laps on that little track as well as the quarter-mile on the frontstretch here. It’s always been a place that I grew up around. And I grew up around a lot of people that are at the track. We’re just at a different stage now.”
Buescher’s at a stage in his racing career that looks to have a bright future as a XFINITY Series champion. After winning a rain-delayed Pocono race in his rookie Monster Energy Series season with Front Row Motorsports, Buescher moved to JTG Daugherty Racing this season.
After a rough start, Buescher posted his best finish of the season (11th) last week at Martinsville and looks for another impressive run in front of friends and family this weekend in the Lone Star State.
“For me, it’s always nice to come back home,” Buescher said. “I’ve got a lot of friends and family that will come out to this race and camp out and hang out. For us, it’s a way to get back and see them. For my family, they’re a lot farther away now than they used to be out in Prosper, but it’s still a good opportunity to go see Dad and some of his friends that are just a couple of miles up the road here last night, and then my mom is coming in this morning, so we’ll be able to see her for dinner this evening. It is nice because we don’t have very much time to go visit family during our year.”
Buescher aims to make a lot of passes on Sunday as he starts 38th after being one of nine drivers unable to clear pre-qualifying inspection who start from the back based on car owner points.
Along with starting in the back, Buescher deals with some added pressure and media responsibility while home in Texas.
“It is hard, with all the different schedules coming in at different times and all that,” Buescher said of balancing his schedule this weekend with friends and family. “But, it’s not bad. We’ve been here in the past where we’ve had very busy weekends. And because it is a home track for me, it seems like we do a lot more media obligations as well versus just all the other stuff with family.
“Yeah, it’s a lot but it’s awesome to be able to do it. It’s awesome to have enough people close enough to the race track that I do get to see them once or twice a year. Yeah, it’s a little busy but it is nice to have something to do when we’re in town. It’s not just hanging out at the race track and being stuck there not knowing where to go or who to see. I have plenty of options here. So, it’s always enjoyable coming home.”
