Double Duty At Richmond

Posted on September 9, 2015 by KBOE Administrator

There are six drivers currently signed up for double duty this weekend in the Sprint Cup/X-FINITY Series twin bill at Richmond International Raceway: Kyle Busch, Landon Cassill, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, Brian Scott and J-J Yeley. Busch and Logano are former Cup Series race winners in Richmond, Busch four times and Logano once. Busch also is a five-time Richmond winner in the X-FINITY Series.

Brad Keselowski is the defending winner of Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 while Kurt Busch was victorious in this year’s first visit there on April 26th. The last driver with back-to-back Cup Series victories at R-I-R is Jimmie Johnson, who swept the track’s two races in 2007.

Next Stop Bristol Motor Speedway

Posted on August 21, 2015 by KBOE Administrator

Next stop Bristol Motor Speeday for Saturday’s IRWIN Tools Night Race, the fourth short-track event of the 2015 Sprint Cup Series. Matt Kenseth, the hottest driver on the circuit, returns as the favorite having won two of the last four races, including the spring race at the track earlier this season. Kyle Busch, who needs solid finishes to maintain his spot in the top-30 in points and in The Chase Grid, has not had the best luck at the Tennessee track, finishing 29th and 36th in his last two attempts. Despite the recent record, he remains a favorite to compete for the win having four victories since the resurfacing of the track in 2007.

Jeff Gordon will make his 46th and final start at the speedway on Saturday night driving his iconic rainbow colored throwback paint scheme. As part of the celebration of Gordon’s career at Bristol, artist Sam Bass has designed a special program cover and the track will hold a salute to the five time winner on lap 24 with specially designed rally towels.

The X-finity Series also visits “Thunder Valley,” for tonight’s Food City 300. Regan Smith will look to win his second straight series race, after a dramatic win last week at the road course at Mid-Ohio. He will be battling for the win not only with series regulars, but also with Sprint Cup Series drivers Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch.

Smith currently sits fourth in points behind Chris Buescher, Ty Dillon and Chase Elliott. Notably absent from the entry list is spring race winner Joey Logano.

The Camping World Truck Series has the weekend off after running Wednesday night in Bristol, where Ryan Blaney claimed the victory. There was news on Thursday with the announcement that veteran racer Alex Tagliani will rejoin Brad Keselowski Racing to drive the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150 in the August 30 Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. Tagliani made his NCWTS debut in 2014 for BKR at the Canadian road course capturing the pole and finishing 16th in his first and only start in the series.

Kyle Busch Extends Win Streak to Three Races

Posted on July 27, 2015 by KBOE Administrator

Kyle Busch drove away from Joey Logano on Sunday’s final restart and was not seriously challenged over the final two laps, extending his winning streak to three races and snapping Chevrolet’s twelve-year string of victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Busch started ninth and led three times for nineteen laps in the Number-18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. His margin of victory over Logano was three-tenths of a second with Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Junior and Denny Hamlin, one of Busch’s J-G-R teammates, completing the top five. Sunday’s win helped Busch sustain his rapid mid-season march toward a post-season berth.

After missing eleven races while recovering from injuries suffered during Speedweeks in February and then struggling with inconsistency in the first month back, Busch has now won four of his last five starts but still needs to reach the top thirty in the standings to be eligible for a post-season Chase berth. He’s climbed to thirty-second place and is just twenty-three points below the cutoff with six races left in the regular season. The last driver to win three straight Sprint Cup races is Jimmie Johnson, who actually put four wins in a row together during the 2007 Chase.

Pole sitter Carl Edwards, another one of Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, led only twenty laps of Sunday’s race and finished thirteenth … Busch’s victory was Toyota’s first Cup Series win at Indianapolis and gave the driver a weekend sweep at “The Brickyard.” He also won Saturday’s X-FINITY Series race … Matt DiBenedetto of B-K Racing was the highest-finishing rookie on Sunday. He placed thirty-second one day before celebrating his 24th birthday.

Kyle Busch Gets A Win On His “Comeback Trail”

Posted on June 29, 2015 by KBOE Administrator

Kyle Busch took a giant step along his “Comeback Trail” on Sunday with a victory at Sonoma Raceway. After missing the first eleven races of the season while recovering from injuries suffered in February at Daytona International Speedway, Busch returned to competition last month. And in just his fifth start since then, he steered his Number-18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around race leader Jimmie Johnson with five laps remaining and kept it there the rest of the way to notch his thirtieth career Cup Series victory and first since March 2014 in Fontana, California.

Busch benefitted from a late caution brought about by Casey Mears’ broken axle. A trip to pit road for four fresh tires put Busch in prime position to chase down Johnson and others who remained on the track with old rubber. From the drop of the green flag on the final restart, Busch quickly began his march toward the front and easily moved past Johnson for his final lead of the day.

The margin of victory over older brother Kurt was a half-second, marking the first time that the Busch brothers finished one-two in Sprint Cup Series competition. Clint Bowyer ran third with regular-season points leader Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano completing the top five. Johnson held on for sixth place.

Pole sitter A-J Allmendinger led just one lap and was slowed by an issue with his fuel system that forced him off the pace, leading to a thirty-seventh-place finish. Defending race winner Carl Edwards placed fortieth in his bid for back-to-back victories. Five-time Sonoma winner Jeff Gordon finished sixteenth on Sunday in what was most likely his final race on the two-mile Northern California road course.

Kurt Busch Takes The Quicken Loans 400

Posted on June 15, 2015June 15, 2015 by KBOE Administrator

Kurt Busch completed his family’s weekend sweep of the two races at Michigan International Speedway with a victory in Sunday’s rain-shortened Quicken Loans 400, one day after Kyle won the track’s X-FINITY Series race.

Kurt Busch had his Number-41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in front of the field when the race’s fourth red flag was displayed for rain that persisted throughout the afternoon over Michigan’s Irish Hills. It’s Busch’s twenty-seventh career win, second this season and third at M-I-S – for three different car owners: Jack Roush in 2003, Roger Penske in 2007 and now Gene Haas in 2015.

Dale Earnhardt Junior finished second and Martin Truex Junior third, giving Chevrolet a sweep of the top three spots for the third race in a row and six of the last seven. Matt Kenseth (Toyota) and Joey Logano (Ford) completed the top five. Pole sitter Kasey Kahne led only the second lap of the race and finished fifteenth.

Busch took the lead on Lap-133 when Kyle Larson was forced to pit after stretching his fuel as far as he could. Five laps later, the skies opened up and NASCAR subsequently called the race sixty-two laps short of its scheduled distance. With his third-place finish, Truex became the first Cup Series driver to open the season with fourteen top-ten finishes in the first fifteen races since Hall of Famer Richard Petty in 1969, eleven years before Truex was born.

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