Buescher takes Xfinity Series points lead to Charlotte

May 22, 2015 - 4:22 PM Concord, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - The Xfinity Series will run its 11th race of the season on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

After winning last Sunday's race at Iowa, Chris Buescher took over the lead in the Xfinity championship standings. Buescher, the driver of the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, holds an eight-point lead over Ty Dillon and a 31-point advantage over Chase Elliott, the defending series champion.

Buescher passed Elliott for the lead on the last restart with just two laps to go to win the 259-lap race at Iowa. He claimed his second career victory in the series. His maiden win occurred last August on the Mid-Ohio road course.

"It's been a good start to the season for us, for sure," Buescher said. "We have race cars that are coming to the racetrack a lot quicker than they were at the beginning of last year at this point in time, and we're in a much better points position. It's been really good, and we're having a lot of fun with it. We just have to keep the momentum up."

Buescher finished ninth in the spring race and sixth in the fall event at Charlotte during his 2014 rookie season in Xfinity.

For the first time, Charlotte will host the "Dash 4 Cash" qualifier, which will determine the four eligible drivers who will compete for the first of four $100,000 payouts throughout the season. The top-four finishing series regulars (those drivers competing for the Xfinity championship) from the 300- mile race here will qualify for the Dash 4 Cash event at Dover, scheduled for May 30.

The other Dash 4 Cash races this season are: Indianapolis (July 25), Bristol (Aug. 21) and Darlington (Sept. 5). This will be the seventh consecutive year of the bonus program in NASCAR's second-tier series. Nationwide Insurance had been the title sponsor of this series from 2008-14 before Comcast and its Xfinity brand secured sponsorship for this year.

Elliott Sadler, who is Buescher's teammate at Roush Fenway, has won the Dash 4 Cash award multiple times.

"We love the 'Dash 4 Cash,' and I can't thank Xfinity enough for bringing that back to our series," Sadler said. "I've been very fortunate in my Xfinity career to win a couple of these races. I actually won here in Charlotte a couple years ago that the fan won $100,000 from Florida, so that was a lot of fun."

Forty-two teams are on the entry list for the Hisense 300. Six Sprint Cup Series regulars are scheduled to compete in this race -- Aric Almirola, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson, who is the defending race winner.

Series: NASCAR Xfinity. Date: Saturday, May 23. Race: Hisense 300. Site: Charlotte Motor Speedway. Track: 1.5-mile oval. Start time: 2:30 p.m. ET. Laps: 200. Miles: 300. 2014 Winner: Kyle Larson. Television: FOX. Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.