Chris Buescher to make Sprint Cup debut at Fontana

Buescher will replace Brett Moffitt, who shifted over to the No. 55 Toyota for Brian Vickers. Moffitt, a Michael Waltrip Racing development driver, had made starts in the past two races in the No. 34 Ford. Vickers is out for the Auto Club 400 due to a recurrence of blood clots.

“We have no Cup starts so this will be the first,” Buescher said in a Ford release. “I’ve run a lot of Cup test sessions and throughout the years I’ve done a lot at Roush Fenway on the Cup side, but this will be the first race. The circumstances that bring it about are not ideal. We wish Brian Vickers the best and want to try to do the best we can for Front Row Motorsports now at this point.”

Getting Buescher in the No. 34 Ford all came together very quickly.

“I was actually getting breakfast over by the hotel and Robbie Reiser called me,” Buescher said. “It’s kind of similar to the way my first XFINITY race went down. I was getting ready for an ARCA race and got the call and was rushed to Richmond, so it’s been wild. I’m happy to help out Front Row and help out another Ford team. We’re trying to all work the best we can to make this happen as smoothly as possible. It’s going to be a wild weekend between the two schedules. I’s excited to get the opportunity, so I appreciate that very much, but we’re gonna have to be on our toes this weekend.”

Buescher is currently second in the XFINITY Series point standings and has two top-five finishes in four races. The 22-year-old Texas native won at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course last summer for his first NASCAR national series win.

“We still have to put our focus on the XFINITY side,” Buescher said. “We’re in contention to win a championship and we need to make sure that our effort is on that area, but, at the same time, we’re more than happy to help out on the Cup side and try to help these guys have a good, solid run and stay up there in points.”

David Ragan, who has driven the No. 34 Ford for the past three seasons, currently is filling in for Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Ragan delivered Front Row Motorsports its first win in 2013 at Talladega Superspeedway.

In addition to the No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports fields two other Sprint Cup entries, the No. 35 driven by Cole Whitt and the No. 38 driven by David Gilliland.

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