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| Buescher (C) and wife Kris celebrate a championship |
For one of the first times all
season, Buescher’s No. 31 Great Clips Chevrolet never cracked the Top-10
Friday. The Plano, Texas native fought handling issues throughout the event,
then dodged a late-race crash that eliminated rival Ty Dillon en route to 13th-place
finish, clinching the championship by a paltry six points over Timothy Peters,
who fought with an ill-handling Toyota of his own Friday. Dillon finished 25th
after the crash -- triggered when he tangled with youngster Kyle Larson while
battling for second place -- and slipped to fourth in the final standings, behind
Buescher, Peters and Joey Coulter.
"Everybody on this Turner Motorsports team has done a fantastic job,"
said Buescher in Victory Lane. "We had a shot at the championship last
year, but we came into this year swinging and did a lot of work over the offseason.
It definitely paid off. This is definitely the coolest thing I've ever done.
“This whole year has been incredible,”
said Buescher. “I got married in January, and my wife is my number-one
supporter. After taking that step in my life, to be able to start off the race
season with a (Nationwide Series) win at Daytona was incredible. It was the
best thing I'd ever done in racing, and that opened the floodgates for us to
win some races on the Truck side. We won four of them, and now we're the
champions.
“It's been a phenomenal year
for my racing career and for my personal life. I feel really blessed.”
The championship was the
first for both Buescher and team owner Steve Turner, and the 12th driver’s title
for Chevrolet since the series was chartered in 1995. En route to the title, the
Turner Motordsports driver claimed a series-high four victories, along with 10
Top-5 and 14 Top-10 finishes in 22 starts. As a team, Turner Motorsports collected
seven Truck Series wins with Buescher, Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Kasey Kahne.
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