This is James Buescher's fifth year competing in NASCAR, and 2012 is shaping up as his best. The 22-year-old driver for Turner Motorsports poured it on in over the final laps Saturday at Kansas Speedway to capture his second NASCAR victory of the year and his first victory ever in the Camping World Truck Series.
Buescher, from Plano, Texas, led the majority of the race (103 of 167 laps) in the SPF 250 at Kansas, but had a challenge late from season points-leader Timothy Peters and owner-driver Brad Keselowski. This is Buescher's third top-three finish of the season in four races in the truck series. He finished second last weekend at Rockingham (to Turner teammate Kasey Kayne) in the No. 31 Chevrolet, and third at Martinsville in his second start of the season.
Peters finished second and Keselowski dropped to third after being passed by Peters with three laps to go. Nelson Piquet Jr. came in fourth, and Todd Bodine was fifth.
"Turner Motorsports trucks are pretty awesome," Buescher said. "Two in a row is saying something. Having our first win (for the team) last week with Kasey, and running second to him, we wanted to come here and win one for ourselves.
"We've had strong trucks at every style race we've gone to this year, and all four (Daytona, Martinsville, Rockingham and Kansas) have been completely different," he said. "That says a lot about the diversity of the trucks we have in this organization."
Keselowski, who led 19 laps in Saturday's truck race, owns a truck that competes in the Camping World Series. Keselowski's No, 19 Ram is normally piloted by Parker Kligerman, but Keselowski, who also races in NASCAR's other two racing series, Nationwide and Sprint Cup, decided to take the wheel of his truck at Kansas in hopes of becoming the 24th driver to win a race at all three NASCAR levels.
"We needed a bit more speed to run with James, who was just lightning quick," Keselowski said in his post-race comments.
Keselowski is also trying to become the first father-son combination to earn a checkered-flag in the truck series. His father, Bob, won a NASCAR truck race in 1997 at Richmond International Speedway. The younger Keselowski will have several more chances to add a victory in trucks to his racing resume this season. He says he plans to run in upcoming races in Charlotte, Bristol, Kentucky and Pocono.
Keselowski will be one of the favorites in the starting field in the STP 400 Sprint Cup race on Sunday at Kansas Speedway, where he won twice last year: in the STP 400 Cup race in June and in the Kansas Lottery 300, a Nationwide event in October.
Follow all the news about NASCAR as well as live racing coverage and results.