Motor Racing Digest

Photo credit: CIA Stock Photography

Posted by: Candice Corrigan, follow @candicecorrigan

July 21, 2012

James Buescher’s chances to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series American Ethanol 225 at Chicagoland Speedway looked very dim after his team was forced to change a carburetor in the middle of the race. By lap 150, Buescher was right where he needed to be as he battled beside Brendan Gaughan and Timothy Peters on the closing laps of Saturday night’s race.

The Turner Motorsports driver fought back from two laps down to take the checkered flag and claim his third victory of the season. Buescher remains in the fourth position in points, but hopes that the second  half of tonight’s race will be a sign of good things for the rest of the season and into the next NCWTS race at Pocono in two weeks.

“I think if the second half of the race sparks some good luck for us I’m glad it’s a shorter time span we have to keep some good luck,” said Buescher. “It can be nothing but a good thing to be able to race closer together and be able to carry momentum.”

The action-packed race left several cars with damage early and two spinning across the finish line on the green-white-checkered finish. Within the first 20 laps, veterans Johnny Sauter and Todd Bodine had been part of separate incidents that left considerable damage to the race trucks of Miguel Paludo and Nelson Piquet Jr.

The low number of cautions (four) does not reflect the true amount of hard racing and near-wrecks that took place in tonight’s race. Three and even four-wide racing made for lots of bumping and door-banging on the 1.5 mile Chicagoland Speedway.

The first and third yellow flags were brought out by the single-car spins of Brian Silas and Jennifer Jo Cobb, respectively. The second caution for debris prompted Brendan Gaughan’s team to make a gutsy pit strategy call of gas only that helped him retain the lead. Gaughan, who has not been to Gatorade Victory Lane since 2003, was a front-runner all night and took home the runner-up spot.

The final caution with six laps to go set up the nail-biting restart between Peters and Buescher that left them battling down to the last lap for the victory.  While Buescher takes home the win, Peters still remains in control of the points by 23 over second place Ty Dillon. Dillon was competitive much of the night, but fell back with twenty laps to go, finishing in the 12th position.

Complete Results of the American Ethanol 225 at Chicagoland Speedway