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FORT WORTH -- Far from feeling any extra pressure to perform at his home track, Texas Motor Speedway, native Texan Chris Buescher fully expects to feel the love and support here, and just maybe complete a breakthrough performance.
The defending XFINITY Series champion from nearby Prosper, Texas transitioned to the Sprint Cup Series full-time this year and is driving the No. 34 Love's Travel Stops Ford for Front Row Motorsports in a technical alliance with the Roush-Fenway Racing team -- the organization he earned the XFINITY title with.
"It's always nice being back home," Buescher said smiling. "I've got a lot of family and friends coming out, so there's no extra pressure, but I get to see a lot more people, which is definitely nice.
"It's the second time coming back here on the Cup side, and I feel like we've made some pretty big improvements from where we started this race last year, and we have some pretty good notes to go off of from Fontana this year. Hoping that a lot of that will translate into this race being that the surface is worn out. It is bumpy.
"I feel like there are some places where we can improve, just trying to figure out how to make it all carry over into this race track. I like coming here."
Buescher, 23, is still looking for his first top-20 showing this season and is coming off back-to-back 33rd place finishes at Fontana, Calif. and Martinsville, Va. His best effort is 28th at Atlanta Motor Speedway -- a 1.54-mile track -- which is similar to the 1.5-mile Texas track.
Last year he made six Cup starts, earning a career best of 20th at Auto Club Speedway. He was 30th at Texas in the April race.
This is clearly his home field -- in every sense of the expression. His parents and longtime friends will be in the grandstands sitting in seats they have had since the facility opened 20 years ago.
And while Buescher fully understands he is in the midst of a huge learning curve, he is hopeful that as he starts giving venues a second and third look the results will improve.
Certainly no one else in Saturday night's Duck Commander 500 field has raced at this facility so much in so many varied ways. Buescher says he's competed on the fifth-mile track, the quarter-mile track, the infield road course and remembers winning in a Legends car on the Dirt Track.
His best showing in the XFINITY Series here on the Texas high banks was a ninth place in 2015.
"I've been to this facility more times than I can count," he said. "I've watched more races from my parents' season ticket spot in the grandstands than I can count, so it's pretty neat. I always know where they're at and I can actually see them from the driver intro stage, which is pretty neat. They're right there on the start-finish line and have been here since I think this place opened. It's been a long time, so it's pretty neat to be on the other side of the fence now and actually being able to run (on) it.
"Like I said, I watched a ton of races from up in the grandstands, and I'm not a very good race fan because I want to be participating so badly that it drives me nuts watching. It's nice to be a part of it now."
Buescher qualified 34th for Saturday night's race behind three rookies and in front of one. It is the best Cup starting position he's had. And he is optimistic.
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"I feel really good about where we're heading this year on the Cup side," Buescher said. "It's been a little bit of a rocky start just looking at our finishes, but we've had speed at some of these race tracks -- not all of them -- but we've had speed at a couple to get started here and we just haven't had things really go our way.
While he hasn't had the finishes in Cup that he became accustomed to in the XFINITY Series, Buescher does have that thoughtful, calm demeanor that recognizes hard work and experience are the surest ways to advance. Each week Buescher is certain he and his team are a bit better.
"It's tough, but it's something that I fully expected," Buescher said. "I didn't plan to come over here and be running top 5 in Week 2 after Daytona, but it's going to be a learning experience. I've told the whole team that. I said, 'Be patient because I have a lot of learning to do.'
"It's a very new situation, not only for myself but it's a new crew chief to me with Bob (Osborne), it's a new team, most of the guys on the 34 are different from what they were last year, and there's the new relationship with Roush Fenway and Front Row Motorsports. There are so many moving parts that we're having to try and adjust to right now that it's gonna take a little bit to get everything flowing smoothly and start running more competitively.
"Until then, yes, it is a hard transition to come off of a championship year and be getting the finishes that we have so far, but it's not due to lack of effort and it's not gonna stay where it's at very long. We're gonna get better to the point where we start feeling a lot better about our finishes and hopefully where we can start coming back up in points this year."