● The Brickyard 400 will mark Busch’s 596th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start and his 17th career NASCAR Cup Series start at Indianapolis.
● Busch has career total totals of 29 wins, 21 poles, 127 top-fives, 252 top-10s and 8,867 laps led in 595 starts.
► His most recent Cup Series win came 18 races ago in the Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (Feb. 26, 2017).
► His last Cup Series pole came 51 races ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway(March 4, 2016).
► Busch is slated to make his 600th career NASCAR Cup Series start Aug. 19 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
● Busch has one top-five and five top-10s and has led only three laps in his 16 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Indianapolis. His average start is 15.9, his average finish is 19.0 and he has completed 92.1 percent of the laps available (2,372 of 2,575 laps).
● Busch might be winless at Indianapolis, but his crew chief is not. Tony Gibson, who has been Busch’s crew chief since late 2014, won the Brickyard 400 in 2001 when he was the car chief for Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 team at Hendrick Motorsports.
● Believe It Or Not – Indianapolis is one of 10 racetracks amid the 23 venues the NASCAR Cup Series visits where Busch has never won a pole. Busch’s best starting position at Indianapolis is third in 2006. Busch’s best Indianapolis finish is fifth, and it came during his rookie season in 2001 when he proved that you don’t have to start up front to finish up front. Busch started 34th that day.
● Do The Double – Busch’s 2014 season wasn’t all about NASCAR as he did what only three other drivers have attempted – compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. In an Indycar fielded by Andretti Autosport, Busch started 12th and finished an impressive sixth in the Indianapolis 500, earning Indy 500 rookie of the year honors. And after completing all 500 miles at Indy, Busch jetted off to Concord, North Carolina, to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 that evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He raced competitively, but 271 laps into the longest race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, engine problems sent Busch to the garage 129 laps short of the full race distance. In all, Busch completed 906.5 miles, leaving Tony Stewart, co-owner with Gene Haas of Stewart-Haas Racing, as the only driver to complete all 1,100 miles in the grueling trek known as “The Double.” Robby Gordon and John Andretti are the only other drivers to attempt The Double.
● Busch IROCs and Rolls to Championship – In 2003, Busch was selected to compete in the 12-driver International Race of Champions (IROC) for the first time in his career. In the fourth and final IROC round in August at Indianapolis, Busch started 12th and picked off eight cars to finish a strong fourth. The result, in addition to his second-place finish in the series opener in February at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, his win in the second race in April at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and his third-place finish in July at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, earned Busch the IROC championship, which he won by 11 points over Mark Martin.
● Coming Full Circle with the Blue Oval – Busch drove a Ford at Indianapolis in his first five Brickyard 400s while a member of Roush Fenway Racing. He is back with Ford in 2017 as Stewart-Haas Racing is a proud member of the Ford Performance family. Just as Busch brought Ford a Daytona 500 victory earlier this season, he wants to add another jewel in Ford’s crown with a Brickyard 400 triumph. Ford’s last Brickyard 400 win came in 1999 with Dale Jarrett. Ford also kissed the bricks with Jarrett in 1996 and with Ricky Rudd in 1997. Those victories added to Ford’s already strong history at Indianapolis, as the marque also owns eight Indianapolis 500 wins: 1965 with Jim Clark, 1966 with Graham Hill, 1967 with A.J. Foyt, 1969 with Mario Andretti, 1970 and 1971 with Al Unser, 1995 with Jacques Villeneuve and 1996 with Buddy Lazier.
● Busch’s Spotter Back Home Again – LaPorte, Indiana-native Tony Raines is Busch’s spotter. LaPorte is located 150 miles north of Indianapolis and Raines competed in four Brickyard 400s with a best finish of 11th in 2006.
● So Far in 2017 – Busch has accumulated a win, two top-fives and nine top-10s in 19 NASCAR Cup Series starts.
● Get to the Points – With his eighth-place finish last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, Busch enters Indianapolis 14th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings with 455 points and is 303 points behind series leader Martin Truex Jr. |