CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR’s frenetic season of rumor mill movement and personnel changes continues in full swing, including two more moves announced Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Chris Buescher, for one, is glad his name isn’t in play.
JTG Daugherty Racing co-owner Tad Geschickter indicated Friday that Buescher would return for a third season in the team’s No. 37 Chevrolet, continuing a multiyear deal already in place. The official word came during a Friday morning news conference where the organization tapped Ryan Preece to its No. 47 Chevy in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2019.
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“There’s a mess this season with everything going on,” Buescher said after Friday’s opening practice for Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM). “It is nice to be able to have some continuity, being able to know I’m coming back to the same team to be able to build on what we’ve been able to do the last few years. Honestly, I haven’t run more than two years with a single team since my ARCA days. It seems like it’s always been so much switching around and moving that it’s so hard to build any momentum that way. We’ve been able to find some success in doing it, but it’s really hard.
“To be able to know that we don’t have to go through that process again, that we have a group over here that we know and understand each other and we can work on that for next year, it makes it that much simpler going through the off-season.”
Buescher will have a new teammate in Preece, 27 and two years his elder. The Connecticut native will replace AJ Allmendinger at season’s end, advancing to his first full Monster Energy Series campaign next year.
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Though he doesn’t know his new JTG Daugherty stablemate that well yet, Buescher says he’s liked what he’s seen from Preece so far in Whelen Modified Tour and Xfinity Series competition. He also says he appreciates his can-do spirit.
“I think he’ll bring something to the table that reminds me a little bit of myself,” Buescher said. “He works on his stuff, he knows (cars) in and out. It’s not one of those deals where he’s just bringing this big sponsor in and that’s how everything happened. It’s somebody that has talent and can go out there and get the job done.”
Another news nugget dropped by Geschickter in Friday’s media session is that the team will switch to Hendrick Motorsports engines next season. It’s a technology connection that Buescher hopes will help lift the two-car team from its current rank of 23rd and 24th in the team owner standings.
“That’s something that has been the works for a long time and really glad that everybody was able to make that happen,” Buescher said. “Everybody at JTG and HMS, to get that deal in place so that we can go into next year and feel like we can have the most horsepower we can possibly get. … I think that’ll be really good for us going forward to have that alliance. At the same time, we’re trying to do a lot ourselves and trying to be as independent as we can be, but being smart about it.”