Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR
Kyle Busch, driver of the No.18 M&M’s/Red Nose Toyota, got a strike in the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway, which was his first win at the track.
For Busch, it’s huge as now he is down to only two tracks – Charlotte Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway – that he hasn’t won at. No doubt, Busch is really excited to finely get the win at Kansas.
“This is pretty big – man, there’s been a lot of rough days here at Kansas, that’s for sure,” Busch said. “A lot of good ones too, but I just can’t say enough about this team and everyone on this M&M’s Camry. This thing was awesome tonight. At the beginning and middle part of the race we weren’t great, but Adam Stevens (crew chief) and the guys, they just kept working on it. The 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) was probably the fastest car, but we kept ourselves in the game. It was pretty impressive. Can’t say enough about Interstate Batteries, NOS Energy Drink, Toyota of course, Sprint and what they’ve done for our sport and what they do for our sport. Everybody can help celebrate with us with Red Nose Day and have some fun. We appreciate everyone supporting Red Nose Day.”
Busch credits his win to his crew chief Adam Stevens, for the call he made for Rowdy to stay out instead of pitting on the second-last caution with 35 to go.
“I’m just proud to have Adam Stevens (crew chief) on my pit box,” Busch said. “I knew our car was really good. I knew our car was best out front. I had trouble in traffic all night long. I wasn’t the best at being able to pick my way through that stuff, but when we had green flag pit stops I really got some good holes and was able to make some good time, but the call to stay out was a no brainer and it certainly worked out for us. I was kind of worried about those guys that had tires behind us, but then they all crashed with tires, so it was kind of weird.
“Having to hold off (Kevin) Harvick – I thought I was going to battle my teammate Matt Kenseth. I’m not sure what happened to him, but raced Harvick really, really hard and really, really clean. They did a great job. He had a chance probably to rough me up a little bit off turn four there, but he chose to be the veteran and the champion that he is and we raced it out and we raced it clean. Why I wasn’t running the faster groove before that, I don’t know because I picked up time when I went back to the groove that I was running before that caution came out, so all in all it really worked out for us.”
Bush ran a clean race without any struggles at all, solidly keeping himself in the top-five all race long.
“It did go our way,” he said. “I certainly found the boundaries that you need to have here being able to feel the race car and I’m so used to just attacking all these race tracks that sometimes I over attack and that may be what has bit me here in the past, but tonight I really felt this race car all night long. It was really grooving and styling out front.”
As noted, Rowdy has won at 21 of the 23 tracks NASCAR races on. If he wins at Pocono Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, then he will have won on every track.
“There’s two that I haven’t won at and those two I’ve had so many opportunities to win at those places,” Busch said. “I’ve not had very many opportunities to win here, so I’m pretty confident that we can knock those off the list and I’m excited about that opportunity and working with this team of guys and Adam Stevens (crew chief) and everybody that he has assembled. It’s so much fun. This group is – really means a lot to me and let’s go on and backup what we did last year.”
Since Busch came back from his injury last season he has won a championship and eight races. But out of all the wins, Busch says Homestead Miami is top of the list because he won the race, allowing him to take home the championship.
“I think Homestead is first, obviously,” Busch said. “I think Brickyard’s got to be second. I think Sonoma, winning there with all the things, all the adverse things going for me with my legs, being able to win in just my fifth start back. Somewhere in the middle, bottom middle. This year is a win that means a lot because it’s an opportunity for us to showcase that we can win at every single racetrack. We’re two short of that. But this is a racetrack that’s in the Chase. So this is why you always tend to — you want to run well at these places in order to just make sure you have good notes and a solid foundation to be able to return.”
