MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2014 When Chris Buescher takes the green flag Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, the RFK Racing driver will make the 400th NASCAR Cup Series start of his career, a milestone he admits arrived much faster than expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did that happen?\u201d Buescher said when reflecting on the achievement, looking back on a Cup career that began in 2015 and has spanned parts of 12 seasons.<\/p>\n
The road to 400 starts began with an unexpected phone call during Buescher\u2019s championship-winning NASCAR Xfinity Series season in 2015. While eating breakfast in Southern California, Buescher received a call from then-Roush Fenway Racing general manager Robbie Reiser informing him that Front Row Motorsports needed a substitute driver for that weekend\u2019s race at Auto Club Speedway.<\/p>\n
At just 22 years old, Buescher quickly left breakfast and headed to the track, making his Cup debut in the No. 34 Ford. The opportunity proved to be a pivotal moment in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a pretty good day all things considered,\u201d Buescher recalled of his 20th-place finish. \u201cWe didn\u2019t tear anything up. We had speed. There was something that clicked on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The debut led to five additional Cup starts later that season before Buescher earned a full-time ride with Front Row Motorsports in 2016.<\/p>\n
His breakthrough victory came quickly. Just 27 races into his Cup career, Buescher scored his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Pocono Raceway in a rain- and fog-shortened event. The victory secured a place in the playoffs and validated his place at NASCAR\u2019s highest level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next lap, going down the straightaway I was like, man it\u2019s getting really bad,\u201d Buescher said with a laugh while recalling deteriorating visibility before NASCAR called the race.<\/p>\n
That first victory launched a career that has since produced six Cup Series wins and established Buescher as one of Ford\u2019s most consistent competitors. Through stops with Front Row Motorsports and RFK Racing, the Prosper, Texas, native has built a reputation as a driver capable of contending on a variety of tracks.<\/p>\n
Despite reaching the 400-start mark, Buescher says he is far from considering his career complete.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool to say that you\u2019ve earned your place and have the right to be here for 400 starts,\u201d Buescher said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s another 100 or 400. We\u2019re not gonna count them down. I\u2019ve not counted them to this point and I\u2019m not going to count them beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2014 When Chris Buescher takes the green flag Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, the RFK Racing driver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-950516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}