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.

Brickyard 400 media day unlike any other

In two weeks I’ll be on the road to the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and you know I couldn’t be happier about it. The Brickyard 400 is a big deal, a huge deal, for me and a lot of other NASCAR drivers.

Jeff Gordon has won it four times, Tony Stewart has done it twice, and Kevin Harvick became the first-ever driver to win from the pole in 2003. Jamie McMurray captured a win in the Brickyard 400 last year, months after winning the Daytona 500.

From left: Felix Sabates, McMurray and Chip Ganassi in the post-race press conference at IMS

“Getting to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 means more to me this year than making the Chase,” McMurray said after winning last year. “This year or in 10 years, the guy that won that race one time everybody will talk about. The guy that finished third in the points, nobody cares.”

Winning once at Indy immortalizes you amongst the greats, and not just the NASCAR greats. If you look at this list of winners at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway you’ll be reminded of history: Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Mears, Fittipaldi and Luyendyk. Names that made the world-famous 2.5-mile rectangle in Speedway, Ind., their home and they invited NASCAR into it.

A win at Indy is priceless.

But some of the best drivers in the sport have yet to visit victory lane, which is why, every year, the same question is asked: “What would it mean to win at Indy?”

Martin and Montoya prepare to start the 2009 Brickyard 400, a race that Montoya dominated, but was caught speeding on pit road, and Martin finished second to Jimmie Johnson

Mark Martin has never done it in NASCAR’s top division (he does have three IROC wins at IMS). Dale Earnhardt Jr. has also never won at IMS, and Juan Pablo Montoya has won the Indy 500 and the U.S Grand Prix, but has never won the Brickyard 400.

To each of these men close is not good enough. They’d love nothing more than to step into Victory Lane, and all three are fan favorites.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning at Indy would make a lot of fans very happy. His dad won in 1995.

But this season has been a season of firsts: Trevor Bayne’s exciting Daytona 500 win, Regan Smith capturing victory at the Southern 500 and David Ragan’s first career win at Daytona two weeks ago have all made headlines.

It seems we’re due for an unlikely winner at Indy.

In two weeks, when media day is upon us, maybe the question to every driver at Indy should be, “Who’s going to be the surprise winner this time?”

I’ll be there. And I can not wait. The countdown is on to the Brickyard 400.

Opinion: Running Nationwide Series at Brickyard is wrong

When Jeff Gluck asked his tweetup crowd at Kentucky Speedway about the impending move of the NASCAR Nationwide Series to the big track in Indianapolis next year, he got a lot of negative answers.

One man even said, “I can take a nap at home.”

Every year around this time the excitement builds for me. I’m a huge fan of the Brickyard 400. It holds a very special place in my heart. Unfortunately, that special place has now been tainted with the news that the Nationwide (nee Busch) Series will now run a race at Indy.

David Newton, of ESPN.com, wrote the same thing in an article last week (Read it here: http://espn.go.com/racing/blog/_/name/newton_david/id/6743367).

“I get that it'll be cool for Nationwide drivers that don't double in Cup to compete at IMS,” wrote Newton. “But it should be a privilege, earned by working their way into the top series. Now among the list of Hall of Fame IMS winners -- Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson -- we could see Reed Sorenson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“Nothing personal against those drivers, but do they deserve to cross the same yard of bricks that A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, Al and Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti did after winning the Indianapolis 500?”

In my opinion: No.

I get that the fine folks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are just trying to help race fans get, “more bang for their buck,” as Newton said, but I really enjoy only seeing one thing at Indy: NASCAR’s top level.

Plus, even though I’ve never been to IRP (and I was told by an RCR media rep that I need to go because it’s fun) a lot of fans and media members are very unhappy about losing a short track.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver in the Nationwide Series, told media last week at IMS that fans shouldn’t be discouraged that IRP is losing the race to IMS.

“I think it's going to be a huge weekend,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “I think the fans, the ones that are disappointed that we're not going back to Lucas Oil on this weekend, I think they're going to get to the racetrack and be surprised how much on-track activity, how many things both of these series are going to have to offer them, especially the on-track activity.”

Newton, who has been around NASCAR since the 1980s, disagreed with Stenhouse’s opinon.

“Ultimately, the fans will pay the price because the Nationwide show at Indy will pale in comparison to what they got on the .686-mile LOR oval on which finishes were tight and tempers flared,” wrote Newton.

Kevin Harvick, 2003 Brickyard 400 champ, disagreed with Newton. He thinks Indy is not hallowed ground.

“I see our biggest facility as Daytona and all our series run there so what makes Indianapolis any more special than Daytona? That’s the way I look at it,” he said at Kentucky Speedway last week. “If our cars are good enough to run on the Daytona International Speedway, they’re plenty good enough to run at the Brickyard.”

Harvick is NASCAR’s ultimate bad guy though. This year he’s finished first in two races that Dale Jr. has almost won, and Harvick also nudged sentimental favorite Mark Martin to the line in the 2007 Daytona 500.

 

Sure, Daytona will always be special, but Indy won’t ever be the same after this year.

“The Brickyard just became like every other NASCAR track. Yeah, it's still special, but it's not as special as it was before this announcement,” Newton wrote.

It used to be fun getting ready for the second most prestigious race of the year. It was the biggest weekend of the year on my calendar, and it won’t be the same with the Busch Series running the same weekend at Indy next year.

It won’t be as special, it won’t be as prestigious and it certainly won’t be better. No matter who tells me it will.

Opinions abound on Kentucky Speedway attendance and traffic

The fallout from the Kentucky Speedway traffic debacle is still ongoing. On Wednesday, Reid Spencer of the Sporting News said Kentucky should give up its 2012 Cup date and revamp facilities for another go around in 2013.

Sports Illustrated released an article counterpointing that, saying, “The first Sprint Cup event at Kentucky Speedway was overflowing with fans – a welcome sign for a sport eager to regain its momentum.”

Eleven months ago I said Kentucky would not be ready for a Cup race. I wasn’t spouting off an unworthy opinion. I sat in snarled traffic as a youngster waiting eagerly to attend the 2000 Craftsman Truck Series race—the inaugural NASCAR event—at the Kentucky Speedway.

Mark Story, columnist for the Lexington Herald Leader, commented on the traffic from that race in a story he wrote on Monday.

“In 2000, for the first major event at the then-brand-new racetrack, some 63,000 people showed up, it rained furiously, and traffic got backed way up way out on I-71…Amidst the massive traffic snarls outside the Quaker State 400 on Saturday night, I kept thinking back to that first night when former owner Jerry Carroll's track opened.”

But Jerry Carroll, the track’s former owner, thought his facility was Cup ready when he built it in the late 1990s. Carroll hasn’t been heard from since the race, but I’d love to hear his delusional reasoning behind why traffic was so bad on Saturday night.

In a 2003 Cincinnati Enquirer article, former track General Manager Mark Cassis said, “As far as the facility itself, everything's in place. All we need is a date.”

I would have loved to have seen that. Could you imagine how interesting a 2004 traffic jam at the track in Sparta would have been without Twitter?

But not all opinions have been terrible. Spencer’s thoughts about skipping 2012 were counterpointed by the Evansville Courier and Press.

“Although the next year’s NASCAR schedule won’t be released until later this summer, rarely do events leave the NASCAR schedule after one race weekend — especially ones that can sell out 107,000 seats more than a week before the race,” wrote Jonathan Lintner.

And I’m not 100 percent Mr. Negative either. I agree that selling out was a huge deal, especially for the sport of NASCAR, which has seen a decline in TV ratings and ticket sales in the past few years.

But there’s no way that 107,000 people saw that race from the stands.

SceneDaily’s Bob Pockrass estimated about 95,000 fans saw the beginning of the race. But, Pockrass noted, “The 95,000 or so fans who made it in to witness the track’s first Cup race were incredibly enthused. As crew members walked into the track, fans cheered. They were vocal in driver introductions. The atmosphere was one of the best of the season, for sure.”

Track owner Bruton Smith said 15,000 to 20,000 fans with tickets were turned away, although some folks have suggested that Smith’s estimate was a little high.

Skirts and Scuffs.com (NASCAR from a female perspective) writer Amy, who has been a race fan her entire life wrote, “Other than the tire debacle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a couple years back I do not remember the fans complaining this much about any race. From comments made through the media, by drivers and fans on Twitter, and Kentucky Speedway it looks as if this was much worse than the 2008 Brickyard 400.”

I remember the ’08 Brickyard quite well. At one point I got up and walked toward the bathroom. My dad grabbed me when I got back to my seat and said, ‘What was that about?’

I responded, “I knew there was going to be a competition caution so I went to the bathroom.”

While my dad says NASCAR did the wrong thing by throwing those cautions (“Let ‘em race,” he said. “They’ll figure out real quick going 190 mph won’t work. Make them slow down to 150 and actually race.”) no one denied just how bad, just how painful that race was.

Phil Bengel, a NASCAR fan from Cincinnati, and the guy who dropped the green flag on the Jeff Byrd 500, agreed. “I just don’t want to see Kentucky get hit like IMS did after 2008,” he tweeted to me on Wednesday night. “Lost about half attendance. Not good for KY, the state, or NASCAR.”

We actually made it to that 2008 Brickyard 400. So did nearly a quarter of a million other race fans, Phil Bengel included. Think of not being able to even sniff the facility where the race was being held. That’s what many fans encountered on Saturday at Kentucky Speedway.

I can sit here and write and post more opinions about the traffic debacle that was Saturday night, but I think you can read for yourself. If you were stuck in it, you know just as well as I do how painful it was.

The book will never be closed on Kentucky Speedway’s traffic issues until next year, and we’ll see if they can change anything. Because if they can’t, next year, the press surrounding Kentucky Speedway could be, and will be, a whole lot worse.

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?

Breaking: National writer says Kentucky should give up 2012 Cup date

A lot of angry fans have vented about Kentucky Speedway’s horrific parking and traffic issue. Remember, this isn’t the first time Kentucky speedway has had a parking and traffic issue.

In their inaugural NASCAR event, a Craftsman Truck Series event in 2000, a traffic scene not unlike the one that unfolded Saturday marred the race.

So why doesn’t Kentucky take a year off, completely revamp their facilities, and give it another go around in 2013?

Reid Spencer of the Sporting News suggested just that when he opined that the 2012 Cup date everyone assumes will return to Sparta, should not. (Read Spencer’s article here: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/feed/2011-07/quaker-state-400/story/commentary-perhaps-kentucky-should-forgo-its-2012-cup-date)

“Give the 2012 Kentucky date back to Atlanta Motor Speedway and give Kentucky a year to work out the problems with local government and law enforcement, another sector that wasn’t blameless in the fiasco,” Spencer wrote. “If not, then proceed on the current course, and do as little as possible to assuage inconvenienced fans, and let the attrition begin.

Come to think of it, that’s probably the surest way to guarantee there won’t be a traffic problem next year.”

Matt Kenseth's No. 17 Crown Royal Ford makes a lap at Kentucky Speedway during testing on Thursday

Bruton Smith sank way too much money (between $80 million and $100 million) into the Kentucky Speedway to give up the Sprint Cup date, but the PR nightmare that has been dubbed as “carmageddon” by some has put a huge black eye on an event that was otherwise pretty good.

And if anyone can learn from a neighbor about screwing an event up, Kentucky needs to look no further than the closest track to it that holds Sprint Cup racing.

Spencer put the spotlight on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s attendance issues after the 2008 Goodyear tire debacle that has cut attendance at IMS by nearly 100,000 fans. He noted in 2008 there were 240,000 folks for the 10-lap, caution-filled parade that was the Brickyard 400, and at last year’s 400-miler, there were just 140,000 fans.

“Unless SMI comes up with a meaningful way to compensate all fans who sat in traffic for hours, whether or not they eventually got to the race, Kentucky Speedway will lose the public relations war, and it’s already getting bloody,” Spencer wrote.

Gentlemen, start your apologizing.