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.

Wednesday photos from Kentucky Speedway

I failed in my attempt to bring you some Kentucky memories from NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers James Buescher and Parker Kligerman, who both won ARCA events at the Kentucky Speedway in 2009.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Cole Whitt, second in the points standings, wheels through the infield on his way out to turn a practice lap on Wednesday at Kentucky Speedway

I did however, shoot a few nice photographs. Enjoy them while I get some sleep and head down for Cup practice tomorrow morning.

Kyle Busch hangs out after the first practice session

Elliott Sadler was fastest in the first practice. He talks with Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate Ron Hornaday (right)

Mark Martin's No. 5 GoDaddy.com hauler pulls in to the Kentucky Speedway on Wednesday in advance of the Quaker State 400 on Saturday.

Austin Dillon turns a lap at Kentucky. He was the fastest in the second practice both in ten-lap average time and fastest lap time

Hornaday's truck will carry the Kroger logo this weekend

And, as always, check out the Quaker State 400 section on FOX19.com. Wednesday’s featured story was about Austin Dillon, driver of the No. 3 Chevy in the Truck Series. Here’s the main page: http://www.fox19.com/category/215363/nascar-sprint-cup-quaker-state-400-at-kentucky-speedway

And here’s the Austin Dillon video, featuring yours truly: http://www.fox19.com/category/195974/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6026791

Kentucky Speedway photos: Tuesday

On Tuesday the campers started rolling in to the areas in and around the Kentucky Speedway. I followed around FOX19 reporter Joe Danneman and photographer Dan Wood. I got some cool photos, which you can view below.

Kentucky Speedway, as viewed from the lower stands in the entrance to turn one on Tuesday afternoon

The newest grandstands at Kentucky Speedway. This photo was taken high atop the Kentucky Tower at the entrance to turn one. These are going to be sweet seats come Saturday night for the lucky fans who get to sit up here

Turns one and two as viewed from the inside of the track. You can camp right up against the fence and have an amazing view of the race

From pit road a panoramic shot of the frontstretch at Kentucky

And the same view from the grandstands looking down at the infield

For all of the photos, check out our special section on FOX19.com: http://www.fox19.com/category/215363/nascar-sprint-cup-quaker-state-400-at-kentucky-speedway

No ticket to Kentucky? Watch it on TV...in Dayton

Dayton, Ohio, not Daytona, Florida had the highest ratings draw for the 2011 Daytona 500. Daytona even beat out Greensboro, N.C. for the top spot, and that, according to one NASCAR writer in Daytona, is a reason why the Quaker State 400 will be a, “hit.”

“Dayton forms a third of a geographic triangle that includes two other markets often found in the top 10 of Nielsen's NASCAR ratings -- Indianapolis, Ind., and Louisville, Ky,” wrote Ken Wills of the Daytona Beach News Journal. “Kentucky Speedway, which opened 11 years ago, is located inside that triangle, in Sparta. The track will be host to its first-ever Cup Series race July 9, a week after Daytona's Coke Zero 400, and if viewership translates to ticket sales, it should be a hit.”

***Just a note, this article by Willis, was published on June 27th, days before Kentucky announced the official sellout of the Quaker State 400. (Read Willis’s article here: http://www.news-journalonline.com/columns/hey-willie/2011/06/27/nascar-no-slouch-in-tv-ratings-game.html)

But even though some of NASCAR’s highest TV ratings come from Indy, Louisville and Dayton, the closest, largest metro area to the track is 40 miles away in Cincinnati. According to the 2010 US Census, Cincinnati’s metro area contained 2,130,151 people, Louisville had 741,096 and Dayton 141,527.

Mark Story of the Lexington Herald Leader used Willis’s info in a column he wrote on Sunday (http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/03/1797585/mark-story-sprint-cup-doesnt-have.html).

“It remains to be seen whether the average Joe and Jane sports fans in the commonwealth who are not weekly NASCAR followers will embrace the race simply because Sprint Cup has now come to Kentucky.

“That to me is the question,” says Lachlan McLean, who is the host of the nightly Sports Talk 84 on Louisville's 50,000-watt WHAS radio. “You've got the gearheads, but does it cross over and become mainstream?”

Story also wrote that the sport is “polarizing.” Fans either love it and defend it passionately (that’s me) or hate it and will do anything to make NASCAR and its fans look bad.

“I'm not sure that, after the newness wears off, non-NASCAR Kentucky sports fans will be pulled in to the Cup race in Sparta,” Story wrote. “NASCAR exploded in popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s and has been a national-level sport since. By this time, everyone has pretty well made up their mind, in or out, on stock-car racing.”

But the one thing that must continue to happen in order for NASCAR to continue coming to Kentucky and making a huge economic impact (judged at around $150 million according to studies done by the speedway) is for the Quaker State 400 to be a success.

There’s no doubt it will be according to the track’s General Manager Mark Simendinger.

Simendinger was on set for SportsWrap on Sunday night with FOX19’s Joe Danneman (who has declared me a “gearhead”) to discuss it.

“I feel good that this isn’t just an event that [Kentucky Speedway] do well with,” he said. “We’re going to do well with this event obviously. But so will the city of Cincinnati and their hotels and their restaurateurs, so will Lexington, so will Louisville, so the entire region draws off this thing and benefits from it and that’s what gives it so much popularity.”

But even if it doesn’t cross over to the mainstream, stick-and-ball sports fans, it will always be a huge draw for folks around the speedway in Sparta. And that means tickets might be hard to come by, but if they are, just head up to Dayton. I’m sure you can find a TV waiting for you there.

Cincinnati, it’s time to step up to the plate and be the most welcoming center of the NASCAR world you can be this week. It’s up to the fine folks in the Queen City to provide a great atmosphere for folks traveling to and from the Kentucky Speedway.

I have faith in you, fellow Cincinnatians. Prove me right.