It took Kyle Busch 13 years to get his first NASCAR XFINITY Series victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
It took him one more year to get the second.
The pole winner at Atlanta for the sixth time, Busch pulled away after a restart on lap 148 of 163 and beat Brad Keselowski to the finish line by 0.605 seconds to score his second straight victory at the 1.54-mile track in Saturday’s Rinnai 250. Continue reading
His car damaged in a wreck on the backstretch and held together with tape, Kurt Busch grabbed the lead on the final lap of the 59th Daytona 500 on Sunday and took the checkered flag in the Great American Race as a capstone to a checkered career that has trended upward since Busch joined Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.
In a race that featured the first test of a new three-stage race format in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series—and featured enough twisted sheet metal to keep fabricators busy for a month—Busch surged to the front with a run around the outside when more than half the vehicles in an 11-car lead draft sputtered and ran short on fuel.
Having pushed other drivers to victory in the 500 on three previous occasions, Busch took the prize himself this time, finishing 0.228 seconds ahead of Ryan Blaney, who came from the rear of the lead pack on the final two laps. Continue reading
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, leads Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER BOATS Toyota, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Can-Am Duel 1 at Daytona International Speedway on February 23, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Photo – Jared C Tilton/Getty Images
A new, sleek Camry race car isn’t likely to change the Toyota teams’ approach to the Daytona 500.
Neither is the success Fords had in breaking up the Toyota monopoly in last Saturday’s Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona.
Last year, Camry drivers dominated the Great American Race, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin edging Furniture Row’s Martin Truex Jr. for the win by 0.010 seconds, roughly six inches. Toyotas swept all three podium positions and put four cars in the top-five. Continue reading
NASCAR XFINITY Series teams will race 300 miles over 120 laps in the PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway Saturday, February 25, 2017. FOX Sports 1 coverage begins at 3 pm ET with the green flag around 3:30 pm ET. Radio coverage is on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Joe Gibbs Racing Goes for Six – After capturing its fifth NASCAR XFINITY Series owner title last season (2008, ’09, ’10, ’12 and ’16) the JGR organization immediately turned its attention to number six. This season Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Matt Tifft and Daniel Suarez will contribute to the owner title winning cause. Jones, Tifft and Suarez will be competing this weekend at Daytona. Gibbs has four NASCAR XFINITY Series Daytona wins, but only once in the season opener (Tony Stewart, 2008). Continue reading
If there truly is strength in numbers, then Ford’s presence in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has grown in magnitude with the addition of Stewart-Haas Racing’s four-car organization.
The benefit was immediately obvious. Stewart-Haas’ Kevin Harvick, driving a Ford in the heat of battle for the first time, helped former nemesis Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski break up a four-car Toyota train at the front of the field in last Saturday’s Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona, the season-opening exhibition race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Continue reading