The Niece Motorsports‘ 2020 driver lineup is almost like a time machine, featuring a litany of names that make NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series fans go, “Hey, I remember that guy!”
On Friday, the team announced another driver who fits that bill, this time a former series champion. James Buescher, the 2012 Truck champ, has been tabbed to run the Texas Motor Speedway race on 25 October. It will be his first NASCAR action since 2015.
“When I exited the sport back in 2015, it was not on my own terms,” Buescher stated. “We had a lot going on at home in 2015, sometimes you have to take a step back and pay attention to God’s plan for your life. Right now, everything has fallen into place to come back and race at my home track at Texas Motor Speedway, and I could not be more excited! It’s going to be challenging after more than five years away from racing, but I am up for the challenge and can’t wait for the green flag to drop.”
The older cousin of Cup Series driver Chris Buescher, Buescher enjoyed success in a NASCAR career that spanned eight years, primarily racing for Turner Scott Motorsports. Besides his 2012 Truck championship, a campaign that saw him win four races, he scored a surprise victory in that year’s Nationwide Series (now Xfinity Series) season opener at Daytona, evading a massive wreck involving the leaders on the last lap. After finishing third in the 2013 Truck standings, he moved to a full-time Nationwide schedule with RAB Racing and finished tenth in points with two top tens.
Buescher returned to the Trucks in 2015 with NTS Motorsports, but only ran the first three races before a lack of sponsorship forced him out of the sport; his last finish was a seventh-place run at Martinsville. In 119 career Truck races, he has six victories and sixty-two top tens. He eventually settled down in Texas and became a real estate agent, and currently owns The Buescher Group with his wife.
At Texas, Buescher has top tens in five of ten Truck starts with a best finish of sixth on three occasions. The track is slightly different from his driving days, having undergone a repave and banking reconfiguration in 2017.
“We are thankful to have James join the team in Texas,” team general manager Cody Efaw said. “James has a tremendous amount of experience in the Truck Series and at Texas Motor Speedway. We are excited for the wealth of knowledge and talent that he’ll bring to the table.”
The addition of Buescher continues a trend of surprise names in the Niece Motorsports roster, which currently has no drivers running the full schedule after Ty Majeski was ousted late in the season. Although the team has fielded trucks for current NASCAR regulars like Ross Chastain and Natalie Decker, other drivers have shown up to the track after years away from the national series for one-off events. Examples include Travis Pastrana, who last ran a race in 2017, Conor Daly, an IndyCar veteran whose lone NASCAR start was in 2018, and Trevor Bayne, who is running the rest of the Truck season after being two years removed from the sport.
