CONCORD, N.C. – Chris Buescher will return to JTG Daugherty Racing next year in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 37 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 full time for the third-straight season.
In addition to introducing Ryan Preece as the driver of the No. 47 Chevrolet, team owner Tad Geschickter confirmed that Buescher would be back behind the wheel of the organization’s sister machine and that both cars would have Hendrick Motorsports horsepower next season as well.
“Chris Buescher will be continuing to drive for JTG Daugherty Racing next season, and we’re proud to have all our partners coming back on board and to be adding a few new ones, as well,” said Geschickter.
“We will also have Hendrick engines next year; this is the last year of our current ECR agreement,” he continued. “If anyone gets a chance to look at the infrastructure that Ernie Cope has built in our shop … we’ve invested heavily in having the right tools, talent and people. There are people in our engineering department who are used to winning and some of that needs to be pointed out.”
Buescher, who earned his only Cup Series win as a rookie in 2016 for Roush-Fenway Racing, has earned two of his four career top-five finishes this season with the JTG Daugherty team. He ranks 23rd in points entering the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL this weekend, which is two spots higher than he finished in the standings last year.
Prior to moving to the Cup Series, Buescher won the 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with Roush Fenway Racing, and Geschickter sees the potential that a pair of young drivers – Buescher and Preece – brings to the table for his operation going into the new season.
“We’re really excited about the potential that both Chris and Ryan bring to the table for us next season,” Geschickter told SPEED SPORT. “In addition, our engineering team is like a dog with a bone when you give them a problem to solve; they won’t give up on it until they find ways to make our cars better.
“What we’re asking Chris and Ryan to do is simple: we don’t want them to be shy if they feel there’s a challenge with our equipment or something that really needs to be focused on. We’re going to go after those things, and we’re a small enough team that we can make those changes relatively quickly,” he added. “Some of these big organizations have a whole protocol on how you go about creating a change, and we’re not like that.
“I believe that we still have development work on our equipment, but I feel that our drivers will feel liberated enough to be able to tell us what they need. We’re going to go figure it out and make things happen.”
