James Buescher and the No. 34 Exide Batteries team made their 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series debut in Thunder Valley on Saturday afternoon. They stayed out of trouble all day and captured a top-15 finish.
Buescher and the No. 34 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet team rolled into the half-mile high-banked Bristol Motor Speedway sporting the colors of new sponsor Exide Batteries. The 20-year-old Texas-native had high hopes of a strong finish on Saturday afternoon.
The team spent the four practice sessions on Friday trying to get their machine to handle on both ends of the high-banked short track. Buescher radioed to crew chief, Michael Shelton, explaining his Chevrolet was loose on entry into the corners which was hindering his ability to really be aggressive with the throttle. The team went to work making adjustments to the front end settings, trying to find a setup that was both comfortable and fast. By the end of final practice, the Exide Batteries team felt like they had a setup that would work for 300-laps on Saturday afternoon.
When the green flag flew over the 43-car field under almost perfect spring conditions on Saturday afternoon, Buescher was lined up on the outside of the eighth row. He fought a very loose racecar early in the running of the event which pushed him back in the running order. He radioed into his Exide Batteries team on lap 16 saying he needed to run in the bottom groove in order to be fast.
When the caution flag was displayed to the field on lap 25, Buescher prepared to roll down the pit lane for service. He slid into his pit box three laps later and the team immediately went to work changing four tires and filling the car with Sunoco racing fuel. The team also made both an air pressure and chassis adjustment to the car hoping to dial it in for the next run.
During the next green flag segment, Buescher really started to make up ground on the leaders. He again radioed into his crew explaining the changes they made during the pit stop really seemed to help the car in the corners. By the halfway point, Buescher had his Exide Batteries Chevrolet in the 17th spot.
The Exide Batteries driver radioed into his crew chief on lap 201 describing the car as stable on entry and through the center of both sets of corners but still needed to help on exit. Shelton and the No. 34 Exide Batteries crew started to formulate a plan for adjustments to the machine on the next stop.
By lap 225, Buescher was on the verge of the top-10 and was running times as quick as the top-five machines.
On lap 257, Buescher was running on the low side of the racetrack when he was tapped from behind by the No. 11 machine. The contact caused the Exide Batteries machine to spin down the front stretch. Buescher did a fantastic job keeping his car off both the inside and outside walls and was able to continue.
He battled for the remaining forty laps passing cars on both the high and low sides of the speedway fighting to get every position he could and crossed the finish line in the 13th spot.
“We had a solid day,” commented James Buescher after the 300-lap event. “[Crew chief] Michael [Shelton] made some great calls on the pit box today and made the car better on every run. There at the end, I felt like we had a top-10 car but had to fight through lap traffic. I am just so proud of the Exide Batteries team. We will take a next week off and be ready to get back to NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racing in two weeks in Martinsville.”
Turner Motorsports PR
