NASCAR CUP SERIES: FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 400

August 14, 2022

Chris Buescher

Pit Lane Interview

Q. It was almost second, it was almost a win. How close were you?

CHRIS BUESCHER: Really close. Everyone on our Fastenal Mustang did such a tremendous job overnight because we didn't know we were in this position yesterday. I didn't qualify real well, and everyone worked hard and had a fantastic race car today.

I think it's a little easy with this format to feel like third place doesn't matter, but it's nice to be close and to keep progressing and getting better as we've gotten through the summer. Really neat to finish here. Really proud of everybody.

Just burned the rear tires up. Ultimately that's on me. Lap traffic didn't do us any favors, either, but ultimately just got to keep the rears under us a little bit better so we can have a little bit better shot there to get after him for the win.

Q. Tell us what you see from the inside because we've been watching this organization, some changes this year, and not great results, and then lately it's been like, okay, maybe they are here. What have you been seeing lately?

CHRIS BUESCHER: You know, it's not really fair to just look at results because at the beginning of the year we didn't fire off as good as we thought. We didn't have the improvement. It took us a few months, but we've had three or maybe four months now of really solid runs, really good speed, ever since Dover really, that we've been really close. We've had some bad luck, had some mistakes that I've got to clean up.

We've made progress through all of it. The results don't always show it. We were running really well at the 600 and we ended up upside down. There's no doubt in my mind we could have competed for a win at the Indy Road Course and we were on fire. We're making highlight reels for all the wrong reasons.

We've been fast in those processes, though. We just have to put it all together to show those results like we did here today.

Q. You've got a road course and Daytona coming up. What do you think?

CHRIS BUESCHER: I'm excited. I'm ready for the win.