Youthful Success Keeps Flowing In The NASCAR Nationwide Series      

Look no further than the NASCAR Nationwide Series for the next wave of young talent. At Mid-Ohio on Saturday, Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Chris Buescher became the third rookie this season to win, joining Chase Elliott and Ty Dillon. This is the first time since 2005 that there have been multiple rookie winners.

The average age of the three winning Nationwide rookies this season is 20.3.

Following this weekend at Mid-Ohio, the bright lights turn to 21-year old Chris Buescher who hails from Prosper, Texas. The cousin of 2013 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion James Buescher, Chris became the 14th different winner in 22 series races this season. Though his rookie competitor Chase Elliott has set the bar high by leading the points and posting three wins, Buescher has certainly found his stride late in the season. He is now ninth in the standings, 144 points out of the lead. He has posted one win, three top fives, eight top-tens and an average finish of 13.4 this season.

Buescher’s last weekend win also padded the stats for the most successful team in series history, giving Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 60 team its 91st victory. Buescher is the fourth driver to win in the No. 60 Ford; joining Mark Martin (39), Carl Edwards (38) and Greg Biffle (14).

Heading to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for the Food City 300, Buescher is looking to better his finish of 16th from earlier in the season. Of its series leading 91 wins, the No. 60 team has only been to Victory Lane twice at Bristol with drivers Mark Martin in 1996 and Carl Edwards in 2007.

Dillon and Elliott both finished in the top-ten at Bristol earlier this season.

Four-Of-A-Kind: Can Anyone Stop Busch From Four Straight?

Following the past three races at Bristol, the only sound fans have heard was Kyle Busch’s No. 54 Toyota engine screaming during his celebratory burnouts.

Busch is ‘King’ when it comes to winning – a record 66 series wins – in the Nationwide Series, and Bristol is one of his most successful tracks.  In 20 starts at the 0.533-mile speedway, he has posted a series-leading seven wins, including two sets of three consecutive wins in the fall 2010-2011 sweep and 2013 sweep-spring 2014. He has posted 13 top-fives and 16 top-tens with an average finish of 8.6.

But can anyone stop him? Yes, but it won’t be easy.

Toyota has won seven of the last eight races at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and Busch is responsible for six of those trophies.

Turner Scott Motorsports driver Kyle Larson has come quite close to besting Busch at Bristol. He finished runner-up to Busch two out of the last three races and in doing so put on a brilliant display of driving in close quarters. Though Larson’s full-time stint in the series was short-lived, his success was clear. Of the tracks at which he made multiple starts, Bristol was his best. In three starts he has posted three top-fives and an average finish of 3.0.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota team could use some of Busch’s winning magic to get them back in the title hunt of the owner championship standings following an engine failure last weekend at Mid-Ohio. The DNF dropped the 54 Toyota team from the lead to second, 21 points back from Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford team. Ryan Blaney will be handling the duties in the No. 22 Ford this weekend. Blaney has made two starts at Bristol posting one top-five, two top-tens and an average finish of 5.5 – series career second-best.

Elliott Versatile In His Championship Pursuit

While many others have struggled to balance the challenges the varying tracks pose on the NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule, series point standings leader Chase Elliott seems almost unfazed by any of them.

Elliott has a ten point lead over JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith, in second place, following Elliot’s ninth-place finish at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Elliott has amassed three wins – Texas, Darlington and Chicago – tied for series most, nine top-fives and 16 top-tens. His average finish for the season is 8.8 and his season-to-date driver rating is 107.9 – second only to Kyle Busch.

Elliott has reached a part of the season where he will start returning to several of the tracks he visited earlier in the year, Bristol being one of them. He started 15th and raced his way up to ninth at Bristol in the spring. Still, maintaining the points lead will prove difficult.

Coming off a series career-best road course finish of second-place last weekend at Mid-Ohio, Regan Smith is hoping to carry his momentum to Bristol and close the ten-point gap that separates him from his teammate. Smith has made nine starts at the 0.533-mile track, but only his last three events have been with JR Motorsports. In those last three starts he has finished in the top-ten twice with an average finish of 12.3.

Just six points behind Smith and 16 back from the standings lead sits Elliott Sadler third in points. Sadler has been chasing a championship in the series full-time for the past four consecutive seasons, only to finish runner-up twice. This season Sadler is positioning himself to make a run at the championship and in doing so has posted one win at Talladega, five top-fives and 16 top-tens. He finished 17th at Bristol earlier this season but finished tenth in this event last season. Sadler has made a total of 15 starts at Bristol posting two wins in ’98 and ‘12. five top-fives and seven top-tens.

Also Noteworthy in the Nationwide Series

JR Motorsports announced this week that veteran crew chief Ernie Cope will replace Greg Ives as the leader of the No. 9 Chevrolet team next season. Ives is working with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Sprint Cup Series next season. Cope began his crew chief career in the Camping World Truck Series in 1997; he has worked with many drivers in all three NASCAR national series. Cope now leads the No. 5 Chevrolet team at JR Motorsports.

Milka Duno looks to become the 18th different female driver to compete in the Nationwide Series and the seventh in series history at Bristol Motor Speedway. Duno is a former IndyCar, ARCA Racing Series and Rolex Grand-Am Sports Car driver who hails from Caracas, Venezuela. She will be driving the No. 29 RAB Racing Toyota for car owner Robby Benton.

Speedway Children’s Charities offers a wide array of events during the August Races at Bristol Motor Speedway.  Since its inception in 1996, the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities (SCC) has raised more than $7.5 million in support of children’s agencies in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. For information on participating in the August race week events or to learn more about Speedway Children’s Charities, visit www.Bristol.SpeedwayCharities.org .