Busch wins 100th NASCAR race and ties Mark Martin’s Nationwide Series record

Last week after he won NASCAR race No. 99 at Kentucky one member of the media gathered in Kentucky Speedway’s media center asked Kyle Busch how cool it would be to win race 100 at Indy, in the (arguably) sport’s second most prestigious race.

“Kyle,” the man said, “I know you want to win next week or maybe at ORP, but how cool would it be if you could get win 100 at the Brickyard since you haven't won there?”

Kyle Busch sits at the table in Kentucky Speedway's media center after winning the Quaker State 400 with crew chief Dave Rogers

“I'm hoping it comes at Loudon, sorry,” he said. “Certainly whenever the next one is, I'll be cherishing it just as much as I did the last one.”

Well, I tried at least. 

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Kyle win this weekend, but I thought it would be awfully cool to see him take the checkers at the Brickyard for win number 100 in his NASCAR career. You can barely write a better story.

But my question at least was prefaced with, “I know you want to win next week.”

“To me,” Busch continued, “I don't want to wait that long for win 100. Hopefully we get the opportunity to run up front again and, you know, have a chance to win some other races before we get to the Brickyard.

“Brickyard is still a little ways off. Maybe we can talk about 104 or something by then.”

Kyle Busch is sitting on 100 wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series, and maybe more importantly, is tied with Mark Martin for the Nationwide Series all-time wins record with 49.

The first person to Victory Lane on Saturday to congratulate Busch was Martin, who has said all along that sooner or later his record would fall to the 26-year old from Las Vegas.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Martin said. “Some people can learn how to drive these racecars if they really, really want to and work really, really hard at it, but the guys that already know how before they ever do it and they work really hard at it are always more successful. That’s the case with Kyle. He was a natural from the first time he slipped into one of these big stock cars on a big racetrack.

“It’s been amazing to watch and it’s hard for me to get my arms around that he is where he is at his age. It’s amazing. It’s really great that NASCAR is in a position today to give an opportunity to young drivers and get an opportunity because 30 years ago having a 25-year-old driver was not something that a top team would want to have.

It’s really cool to see, and I’m just as impressed as everyone else with this guy – every week.”

Busch wanted the media folks to stop harping constantly on his numbers, but was asked if being mentioned in the same breath as Hall of Famers like Richard Petty and future Hall of Famers like Mark Martin had sunk in yet.

“You have to retire first right, to get in the Hall of Fame?” said Busch. “Apparently (Mark Martin)’s not going to be an inductee anytime soon — that’s alright — more power to him. I said on TV, he’s young at heart and he wants to keep doing what he’s doing. That’s awesome.”

So maybe I was wrong for asking Busch if it would be cool to win at Indy. Obviously he’ll still be gunning as hard as ever to win the Brickyard 400, but maybe by then it will be NASCAR win No. 104. We’ll have to wait 13 days to find out.

Busch wouldn’t run on Indy road course and Brickyard in same weekend

Last week NASCAR announced that the Nationwide Series along with Grand-Am cars would join the Sprint Cup cars on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Brickyard 400 weekend in 2012. Kyle Busch was the only driver to run in all three races this past weekend at Kentucky Speedway, so the question is, if the opportunity presented itself, would the younger Busch like to run in the Grand-Am race at IMS?

“I won’t drive the road course, I would get confused coming through turn one backwards. That won’t be too good,” he said with a slight smile.

The road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway starts on the front stretch before winding through the infield and shooting out on the main track near the entrance to turn two. But that’s not the only reason Busch wouldn’t want to run in the Grand-Am cars.

“I won’t run that race,” he said. “Those cars are too hot. They’re too hot. Need to be able to roll down the window or something.”

In the late July/early August heat and humidity that owns the Indianapolis weekend, I’d agree with the younger Busch. There have been times at the track where my dad, brother and I just sat and sweated through every pore in our body. And we were wearing t-shirts and shorts, not a racing fire suit. I could only imagine how hot it would be in one of those suits.

As far as it’s scheduled now, the Nationwide Series is supposed to run the regular track at Indy. If they aren’t, I haven’t seen a release saying they’ll also be running the road course. And I think it would make headlines if they were going to.

(Note: After reading and re-reading the press conference notes, I’m almost certain the Nationwide Series will run on the oval, not the road course)

Busch, who is on record saying he wouldn’t run the Grand-Am cars, confirmed that he wouldn’t run in the Nationwide Series if NASCAR decided to put their second-tier series on the road course at Indy.

“That wouldn’t be bad,” Busch said. “I don’t see anything wrong with it at all…there’s going to be some tight sections through the ‘esses,’ I guess you would call it.

“You’ll see some congestion there, but otherwise it would probably be a good event.”

And no matter how much you’d like to see Kyle Busch go through turn one backward and then forward in the same weekend at Indy, it probably won’t happen. But he’s got at least a year to be persuaded. Anyone think they can convince him?

18 Days ‘til the Brickyard 400: Kyle Busch wants to win “a big one”

Kyle Busch dominated at Kentucky. He’s still waiting, though, to capture a crown jewel of the sport—a win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Brickyard 400.

“I’d love nothing more than to win there,” said Busch. “It would be something cool. Been close a couple times, but like to get a little closer.”

Considering the next time Kyle Busch wins it will be his 100th NASCAR win, I think winning at Indy would be a big deal. But he’d rather win sooner.

“[The] Brickyard is still a little ways off,” he told me. “Maybe we can talk about 104 or something by then.”

With just 18 days until the Brickyard 400, the countdown is on. Every year around this time I say the same thing: Kyle Busch is good enough to win at Indy. And every year, without fail, I always come back home from Speedway, Indiana with the same question: He’s won everywhere else, and he’s a great driver, why can’t he win at Indy?

“It’s so hard to find a particular line that really, really works for your car because the groove is so narrow,” Busch explained. “It’s plenty wide for one or one-and-a-half cars, but the line that you run around there, if you vary six inches it feels so different.

“You really have to be particular in hitting your marks and getting your car set up. The way that it changes throughout the weekend going from practice, not much rubber on the racetrack, and then to the race with a lot of rubber on the racetrack, the trajectory of the corners changes.

“How wide do you enter the corner? How long do you stay out? How sharp do you turn down?”

But would it be awesome to win his 100th NASCAR event at the Brickyard?

“I'm hoping it comes at Loudon, sorry,” he said to me. “Certainly whenever the next one is, I'll be cherishing it just as much as I did the last one. To me, I don't want to wait that long for win 100. Hopefully we get the opportunity to run up front again and, you know, have a chance to win some other races before we get to the Brickyard.”

In six races at the world famous speedway, Busch has only one top five (a fourth in 2007) and four top ten finishes. His only non-top ten finishes came in back-to-back years, 2008 and 2009.

Busch at Kentucky

Everyone remembers the tire debacle of 2008, and in 2009 Busch wrecked in turn four about 60 laps into the event.

If Busch can get his No. 18 into the shape that he had in it at Kentucky this past weekend, the field at Indy will be in trouble.

Even though he’s never pulled off a win at Indianapolis, he certainly looks like a contender again this year.

Kyle Busch is getting more personable

Let me start by saying at this time last year I thought of Kyle Busch the way many fans think of Kyle Busch. Damn he’s a great racecar driver, but he’s kind of unfriendly. Yet, that unfriendliness is what draws so many people to him, and I respect that.

 

This weekend at Kentucky Speedway, part of that opinion changed.

Kyle Busch is still one heckuva racecar driver; that obviously hasn’t changed. But the fact that he seemed more lighthearted and friendly with the media this past weekend really made me respect him even more.

For years fans have complained that Jimmie Johnson is too vanilla. Then he began to tweet, and it has changed many fans’ views (yours truly included) of the five-time defending Sprint Cup champion.

Kyle Busch had a moment like that on Friday around noon at Kentucky. While sitting in the media center’s “Bluegrass Hall,” where all the press conferences were being held, Busch cracked jokes with reporters about his bright green and yellow firesuit.

Jeff Gluck of SBNation.com mentioned that Busch’s NOS Energy Citrus flavor firesuit hurt his eyes. I’ll let you decide if the bright, almost neon green and yellow is too much of a clash of brightness for your pupils.

I'm not sure this picture does justice to the brightness

And after that question Busch answered one about if racing in all three series this past weekend was tiring.

“Yeah it’s certainly a longer weekend this year because of all the testing and everything that they’ve allowed us and the extra track time and that,” he said. “It’s certainly hot.”

‘This is a great answer,’ I thought. It was interesting to hear the only driver who was running in all three events give his take on how tiring the weekend actually was.

And then Busch dropped something that only Carl Edwards or Michael Waltrip have done in the past: an unbelievable sponsor reference.

“Plus, I’ve got the awesome NOS Energy Drink sponsor that keeps me going. Plenty of flavors to choose from,” he said. “Help yourselves. M&M’s hauler, Z-Line Designs, NOS Energy Drink hauler and pick yourself up one. New charge citrus flavor tastes just like Mello Yello. It’s a Southern thing, right?”

I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes, and that was something I never expected from that short Kyle Busch meeting in the media center.

And I hope it has changed your view. Love him or hate him, I hope you’d enjoy the great comment he had. It wasn’t an awkward sponsor reference either, but it was genuine attempt at comedy. And it worked. I enjoyed it.

More on Kyle Busch’s hilarious comments about an event next season later on today.

Coach Joe Gibbs: “Hats off to Kentucky's fans”

Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, and former NFL coach, knows a thing or two about crowds. He’s been a NASCAR owner since 1992, and won three Super Bowls as the head coach of the Washington Redskins.

Coach Joe Gibbs sits atop the pit box of Joey Logano on Saturday night at Kentucky

And he complimented the fans of Kentucky Speedway on Saturday after one of his drivers, Kyle Busch, won the inaugural Quaker State 400 at the newest Sprint Cup facility.

“One thing I really want to emphasize is this: this crowd, I was out there coming back in from hospitality, honestly, they were 30 abreast trying to walk up to get in the stadium,” Gibbs said. “They were coming over the top of the hills.

“This is fun to be at a place like this. It was exciting. Everything was packed. I went out and signed a few autographs out at a video truck we had. The people were just great.”

The people that made it into the gates that is.

“Hats off to this area, the racing, people in this area, everybody that was here, everybody that couldn't get here,” Gibbs said, noting those who got stuck on the highways leading into the track and never saw the race. “We appreciate being here. I think it's a huge deal. I appreciate NASCAR and everybody, Bruton, everybody that helped us get to this part of the country to race.”

Busch (middle) talks with Gibbs (right) post race

“This one ranks right up there with the best of them,” said Busch. “I haven't won any of the big races, unfortunately, yet. But, you know, it ranks right up there with Las Vegas being another of my prestigious wins that I feel like I've accomplished so far.”

Gibbs said seeing his car in Victory Lane was special.

“I remember the very first time we came here and raced the Nationwide. I think it's an exciting area. I look at all of America as kind of our playground. I think this place is special and different,” he said.

The team owner has had a lot of success at the track in Sparta. From the time Joey Logano has jumped into the No. 20 car in the Nationwide Series, he’s had success at the track. Even though the youngster didn’t win this weekend, he put his own stamp on the second-tier race at the track.

Coach Gibbs is already looking forward to coming back to Kentucky next season.

“I look at all the other parts of the country,” he said. “It's unique getting a chance to go there, display our sport, getting a chance to be a part of that culture and that community.”

Kyle Busch takes Kentucky by the horns

I’ll admit, I was wrong.

When Bruton Smith stood in front of hundreds of reporters last August and said the Sprint Cup Series was coming to Kentucky Speedway, I brazenly said Joey Logano would be the favorite. Logano was named as one of the seven drivers to participate in a Goodyear tire test a month before the big show in Kentucky, furthering my feelings that the 21-year-old would take the checkers at Kentucky.

Well, I’ll at least take solace in picking the right team for the winner.

From left: Crew Chief Dave Rogers, Busch and team owner Coach Joe Gibbs

Kyle Busch came out at Kentucky and stole the show. He won the Camping World Truck Series race, finished third in the Nationwide Series race, and owned the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, leading a race high 125 laps en route to becoming the inaugural winner of the Quaker State 400.

“This one ranks right up there with the best of them,” Busch said on Saturday night after winning the Cup race. “I haven't won any of the big races, unfortunately, yet. But, you know, it ranks right up there with Las Vegas being another of my prestigious wins that I feel like I've accomplished so far.”

Yet it began earlier in the week for the Las Vegas native. He mentioned that the car was fast right off the truck, and he worked with crew chief Dave Rogers to get the No. 18 just right throughout the weekend.

The one word that was thrown around all weekend was character. The bumpy surface at Kentucky was described as having character by Busch, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer, amongst many others who spoke with the media throughout the weekend.

“This place — you never get a comfort here at Kentucky,” Busch said after winning Thursday evening’s truck race. “It’s such a hard race track. Turn three is just my Achilles heel. It’s killing me. I think it has been all weekend. I’d like to be able to get faster and I’m working towards doing that. We just got to work on things that will help me.”

But after the cup race, Busch was happy to explain what he had to do to get the No. 18 to Victory Lane.

Busch chats with the media on Friday afternoon

“It's certainly a driver's racetrack,” he said. “There's a lot of characteristics here with all the bumps, the way you have to run the line around, whether it's the bottom or whether it's the second lane, where the bumps are, figuring out that, whether you go through them or around them.

“Certainly it makes for an interesting setup, having to talk to your guys, having to work around a shock package or springs that will help your car that will make your car handle best through the turns, over the bumps. You take all that into consideration, do the best you can.”

Now that Busch has cemented his name as the first-ever Sprint Cup winner at Kentucky, he’ll be the go-to man for advice on how to get around the track. While some drivers want Kentucky to be repaved right away, others say let it be for a year or two. Busch is one of them.

“I've heard rumors of repaving this place. Hopefully they ask us before they do it,” he said.

Busch chats with his team after Wednesday's Camping World Truck Series practice

And who could blame him? He pretty much owned the place this weekend.

Kligerman remembers ’09 ARCA win at Kentucky

Parker Kligerman won the 2009 Click It or Ticket Buckle-Up Kentucky 150 ARCA race with a last lap, last corner pass. He battled for ten laps with then fellow rookie Grant Enfinger all the way to the checkers.

On Thursday at Kentucky Kligerman ended up finishing runner up to Kyle Busch in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway. The 20-year-old said Busch’s romp from 43rd (he started last because he missed the Camping World Truck Series drivers’ meeting) reminded him of his days in ARCA.

 “You get in a rhythm, you get in a flow,” he said. “I did it in ARCA. If you start in 43rd and pass five cars a lap in five laps you look up and you’re in third.”

So what could he recall from that hot July night in 2009?

“Actually, I don’t remember a whole lot,” he said, laughing. “I tried to take notes and look at my notes, but I was a rookie at taking notes so I didn’t get much out of it.”

Luckily, his owner Brad Keselowski, participated in the Goodyear tire test on June 1st and gave some notes to Kligerman on how the tires would wear at Kentucky. Kligerman used the three practice sessions the truck series got to improve his truck for the race.

 “We methodically moved up throughout the race,” Kligerman said. “Fortunately we had a top five car by the end of practice.”

For a kid ARCA Series legend Frank Kimmel said was Kligerman was the “real deal” in July of 2009, I’d say Kligerman has a lot more winning left in him.

“He’s going to go straight to the top,” Kimmel said in July of 2009. “He doesn’t make mistakes that a lot of the guys you just mentioned made at his age. He’s a very smart, a very talented young man.”

 When you’re battling Kyle Busch it’s tough to win, but he held his own, and had a great points day at Kentucky. The Camping World Truck Series next races on Saturday at Iowa at 8 p.m. on SPEED Channel.