Saturday Dover Notebook
Notebook Items:
- In one sense, the pressure’s off Chris Buescher at Dover
- Johnson encouraged by progress of Earnhardt's recovery
- Short Strokes
October 1, 2016
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
IN ONE SENSE, THE PRESSURE'S OFF CHRIS BUESCHER AT DOVER
DOVER,
Del. – When racing pundits were making their Chase for the NASCAR
Sprint Cup predictions at the start of the 2016 season, it’s doubtful
that Chris Buescher made anyone’s
top 16.
Nevertheless,
Buescher defied the odds and qualified for the Chase on the strength of
an unlikely victory in the rain-shortened Aug. 1 race at Pocono.
But
the opening two events of the playoff didn’t go the way the driver of
the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford would have liked. Buescher
finished 28th at Chicagoland and 30th
at New Hampshire to fall into last place in the Chase standings, 30
points below the cut line.
To
avoid elimination when the Chase field is trimmed from 16 drivers to
12, Buescher almost certainly needs a victory in Sunday’s Citizen
Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway
(2 p.m. ET on NBCSN) to advance to the next round.
To Buescher, surprisingly, that means a stress-free weekend at the Monster Mile.
“We
look at Dover as the last race of this round, and we really don’t have
anything to lose,” Buescher said. “Chicago and Loudon weren’t the races
that we wanted to have, and
we come into Dover, one of my favorite race tracks.
“I’m
excited to get on track. This should be a place where we can really
have a good run and see if we can advance to that next round. It’s going
to be tough at this point, but
this is probably our best race track out of this round, so I’m excited
to get going.”
In
his only previous Sprint Cup start at the Monster Mile—a wreck-filled
war of attrition on May 15—Buescher finished 18th, four laps down. But
in four NASCAR XFINITY Series
starts at Dover, Buescher has one victory, three top 10s and a worst
finish of 11th.
“Like
we said, we don’t really have anything to lose here,” said the 2015
XFINITY Series champion. “All we have to do is gain, so, to me, it’s
going to make it to where we’re
able to go out here and not worry about it, take some chances, try and
utilize some risk and see if we can pull something off.”
JOHNSON ENCOURAGED BY PROGRESS OF EARNHARDT’S RECOVERY
Most race car drivers would rather wreck than watch someone else drive their cars.
From
that perspective, Jimmie Johnson can understand why Hendrick
Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn’t been frequenting NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series race tracks as he spends
the rest of the season recovering from a concussion.
Yes,
Earnhardt made a brief appearance at Watkins Glen in August, and he
participated in a longer press conference at Darlington a month later.
But Sunday will be the first time
Earnhardt will stay for a Sprint Cup race.
“I
completely understand how difficult it is to come to the track and feel
productive,” Johnson said. “But I guess many of you haven’t had a
chance to see him in our team meetings,
at the shop, and various ways we interact and being a part of the
discussions week-to-week on what’s happened when we’re getting ready for
the next week.
“He’s
been deeply involved in all of that. I can only imagine how hard it is
to go to the track and watch your car race, and then also how boring it
would be, because we do have
the coolest job to sit in that race car. And then just to come to a
track and watch, I don’t know if I could do it.
“It’s
great from a public perception that he’s coming and that people can
really see how hard he’s working and then kind of tie that together with
his recovery process. But I’ve
seen a lot of him and I know he’s dying to get back in the race car and
eager to feel amazing again, and I think he’s on a great road of
progress right now.”
Part
of Earnhardt’s recovery involves participation in high-stress public
situations. On Friday, before coming to Dover, he attended a high school
football game at his alma mater,
Mooresville High School.
SHORT STROKES
Saturday
morning’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice was shortened because of
light rain, but not before Jeff Gordon, subbing for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
this weekend, posted the
fastest lap of the session at 160.514 mph. Gordon ran 41 laps before
the session was curtailed at the 40-minute mark, second only to Jamie
McMurray’s 42. ... Interestingly, there were no Chase drivers in the top
six on the speed chart in the Saturday morning
session. Behind Gordon were Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Newman, Kasey
Kahne, Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer. Kyle Larson, who led Friday’s
opening practice at the Monster Mile, was the fastest of the Chase
drivers on Saturday, recording a best lap of 158.898 mph…
Saturday’s final Sprint Cup practice was cancelled because of rain.
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