Pit road penalty relegates Buescher to an 18th-Place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

LAS VEGAS - After starting in the 14th position for the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, James Buescher and the RAB Racing No. 99 Rheem team battled a loose-handling race car. The 23-year-old driver was able to adjust his line and continue to hold his ground inside the top 15.

James Buescher

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

Looking to tighten up their Camry, crew chief Chris Rice called for four Goodyear Eagle tires, Sunoco fuel and a chassis adjustment. Shortly after Buescher visited pit road, the race saw its first of five caution periods on lap 57. Restarting in 15th position, still one lap down, Buescher went to work trying to get back into contention for the free pass to pit him back on the lead lap and continued to run inside the top 15 until his second green-flag pit stop on lap 111.

After the crew completed service on their Rheem Camry, it was announced that Plano, Texas, native was assessed a penalty for speeding when entering pit road. After serving a pass-through penalty, Buescher dropped four laps down to the leader. Continuing to battle the rest of the race, Buescher was able to make up one of his laps and ultimately crossed the finish line in the 18th position.

James Buescher: "It's obviously not the finish our RAB Racing, Rheem team was looking for. Our Rheem Camry got really loose the longer the run went. We continued to make gains on it all day long, but by that time we've given up so much track position. We really got hurt when we got caught speeding coming onto pit road. That put us in a hole and we weren't able to catch any breaks to get us out of that hole. Our RAB Racing Rheem Camry was really good the second half of the race, being able to position the car a lot better than the first half of the race. We'll learn from this and move on to Bristol next week."

Upcoming Race: The NASCAR Nationwide Series comes back east when the series takes on the high-banks of Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 15 for the DRIVE TO STOP DIABETES 300. The event can be seen on ESPN2 starting at 1:30pm ET. The event can also be heard on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, channel 90 and on PRN Radio.

RAB Racing