Despite Team Penske's Ryan Blaney going from a 56-point deficit back to a 17-point deficit, Chris Buescher is one driver who could not be bothered about the same.
Challenging for his spot in the final round of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver seems to be focused on his task at hand.
Elaborating on how winning a race in the upcoming two events is the only way for the #17 Ford Mustang driver, despite it being possible to make it on points, Buescher seems to be as focused as ever.
The 30-year-old spoke about his strategy going into the 4EVER 400 presented by Mobil 1 this Sunday (October 22) and told SpeedwayMedia.com:
"I think they already changed the penalty back before I even knew about it in the first place. By the time I got the news it was like, ‘Oh, never mind.’ We are in a spot where we are within striking distance still from really strong points days but really it is going to be about winning in this round. That is the main part of it. I really can’t control what goes on elsewhere."
With the Toyota-manufactured cars also being speculated to run well at the 1.5-mile-long Homestead-Miami Speedway despite an off weekend last Sunday (October 15) in Sin City, Chris Buescher acknowledged the uphill battle that lies in front of him.
Chris Buescher elaborates on his qualifying result ahead of NASCAR Cup race in Miami
Despite qualifying outside the top 10 in P17 after a decent attempt on Saturday (October 21) to set up his race on Sunday, Chris Buescher seemed content with the pace advantage he felt from practice into qualifying.
He elaborated on what he expects to do on Sunday during the second race of the Round of 8 and told SpeedwayMedia:
"We definitely made some really big gains from practice with our fire-off speed with our Fastenal Mustang so I am happy with that. At the same time, we needed just a little more there. Maybe a half a tenth."
"Our long run speed was pretty good in practice, it just took us way too long to get to that point to get decent. I think we have already started tackling for the qualifying lap and beyond to get going a little quicker but still maintain pace as we get deep into this thing," he added.
Watch Chris Buescher compete during the 4EVER 400 this Sunday, October 22, 2023, at 2:30 p.m. ET on the NBC and MRN networks.