When the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series went from crowning a season-long champion to a playoff format starting in 2004, there used to be one and only race where competitors hoped to simply make it through the race unscathed to have a shot at winning the season title. That track, of course, was Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where disaster could strike at any moment in the form of a multicar accident that could easily be not of one’s own doing.
Now, 15 seasons later and with the series having added an elimination format starting in 2014, there are multiple races where competitors simply hope to survive and advance. For the second year in a row, teams won’t be competing solely on Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway’s fast, 1.5-mile oval where a race’s outcome is mostly in the hands of a driver and his team. Instead, they’ll be competing on its 2.28-mile, 17-turn “roval” layout that combines parts of the oval with its relatively new infield road-course section.
With all of that in mind, Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Hazelnut Spread Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), heads to the roval layout and the first cutoff race of the 2019 Cup Series playoffs with a huge sense of relief. His runner-up finish Saturday night at Richmond (Va.) Raceway was good enough to advance Busch and his team to the playoffs’ Round of 12 that starts at Dover (Del.) International Speedway next week. Busch is one of three championship-contending drivers with the luxury of racing this weekend with nothing to lose. The others are JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr., winner of back-to-back races to start the playoffs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Richmond, and Kevin Harvick, who locked himself into the Round of 12 by virtue of his top-10 finish last weekend.
With the pressure off for the time being, Busch can focus on his own pace around the slippery road-course portions through the Charlotte infield, an approach that should garner success despite just one previous race having been run on the circuit. Busch is hoping he can equal the feat he accomplished in May 2018 at Charlotte, albeit on the 1.5-mile oval, when he brought home his first career points-paying win at the track in the Coca-Cola 600, one of the crown jewels of NASCAR’s top series.
While this weekend’s Charlotte layout is still a bit of a relative unknown, Busch has established himself as one of the top road-course racers in the Cup Series. If the 2015 Cup Series champion was to grab another checkered flag in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400, he could join some elite company as a road-racing ace in NASCAR’s top series.
Busch is tied for fourth with David Pearson and Mark Martin with four Cup Series road-course wins apiece. That’s some pretty good company, already. But with a fifth road-course win, he could tie Darrell Waltrip, Tim Richmond and Dan Gurney for third on the road-course win list. There is a bit of distance to the top two spots on the all-time road-course wins list, however, as second-place Jeff Gordon has seven wins and leader Tony Stewart has nine.
So as Busch heads to the second-ever race on the Charlotte roval this weekend, he’ll have the comfort of knowing he has nothing to lose. He’ll no doubt be focused on bringing home the checkered flag as nothing else matters – at least this weekend.
KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Hazelnut Spread Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:
Since you clinched your spot in the next round and don’t really need to worry at the roval, how do you treat that race?
“Last year at the roval, I thought we were going to be all right and finish OK, but then we all decided to follow everybody else off a cliff. It was pretty ugly. But overall, just – you try to go into that race, it’s a newer type of track, and I don’t know that everybody has got it quite figured out exactly, yet. With this new aero package, it’s going to be different and of course, too, with the new chicane it’s going to be different. We can go out there and attack it and try to get a win with our M&M’S Hazelnut Camry, try to get some bonus points, get ourselves a bit of a cushion there, I guess, more over the rest of the guys.”
Will you be able to drive the roval differently because you don’t need to win?
“I think so. You want to win. I think you can drive it differently because you can go force the issue sometimes and try to get a win or get a good finish versus just kind of having to be stressed about it the whole day and on your toes about it the whole day and let it be worrisome.”
What is the most difficult part of the track to figure out at the roval?
“I think the hardest part is just trying to understand the different dynamics between the slow sections in the infield portion of the track versus the high-speed and high-banked portion of the oval track. You are slipping on every corner, there’s not a corner where you are necessarily feeling really good about. It’s going to be a technical challenge all the way around yet again this year.”
Are you seeing more aggression in the playoffs this season after what we saw during the regular season?
“Yeah, I guess I would imagine some of that, sure. Everybody goes for broke and tries to move people out of the way and get what they can get on restarts. It’s always kind of chaotic in that regard. It’s because as soon as the restarts are done and you kind of get three, four, five, six laps gone after a restart, then that’s kind of where you ride. It’s really tough to pass for the next 40 (laps) until cars start to fall off and tires start to wear out a little bit. It’s certainly a different game than what it’s been in years past. In years past, you could kind of take it easy on restarts a little bit and let everything kind of formulate and single-file out some and then you could pick your way up through there. You can’t really do that now.”
Is survival the biggest key to having success at the roval this weekend?
“I think the biggest thing is to get some track position. If you are out front, hopefully you can lead everything, but you know there’s going to be some strategy that comes into play with people pitting at different times and things of that regard. You just have to make sure you are on top of your game the whole time and making sure you do what you need to do and focus on your own race, not necessarily what the guys around you are doing. I know Adam (Stevens, crew chief) will make some good calls and hopefully we can get out front and try and stay there with our M&M’S Hazelnut Spread Camry.”
M&M’S Hazelnut Spread Racing
Race 29 of 36 – Bank of America ROVAL 400 – Charlotte
Car No.: 18 – M&M’S Hazelnut Spread Toyota Camry
Teammates: Denny Hamlin – No. 11 Toyota Camry; Martin Truex Jr. – No. 19 Toyota Camry; Erik Jones – No. 20 Toyota Camry.
At-Track PR Contact: Bill Janitz, True Speed Communication (704-875-3388 ext. 803 or Bill.Janitz@TrueSpeedCommunication.com).
Primary Team Members:
Driver: Kyle Busch
Hometown: Las Vegas
Crew Chief: Adam Stevens
Hometown: Portsmouth, Ohio
Car Chief: Nate Bellows
Hometown: Fairfax, Vermont
Race Engineer: Tyler Allen
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Engine Specialist: Mike Johnson
Hometown: Bozeman, Montana
Spotter: Tony Hirschman
Hometown: Northampton, Pennsylvania
Over-The-Wall Crew Members:
Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Front Tire Changer: Cam Waugh
Hometown: Johnstown, Colorado
Jackman: T.J. Ford
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Tire Carrier: Joe Crossen
Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina
Rear Tire Changer: Jeff Cordero
Hometown: Salem, Connecticut
Road Crew Members:
Truck Drivers: Brendan Greene and Jamie Price
Hometowns: Midland, North Carolina, and Choteau, Montana, respectively
Tire Specialist: Jon Desrocher
Hometown: Plattsburgh, New York
Mechanic: Wesley Lape
Hometown: Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania
Race Engineer: William Hartman
Hometown: Laingsburg, Michigan
Ride and Handling Engineer: Chris Chase
Hometown: Nichols, New York
Rear End Mechanic: Chris Jones
Hometown: Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia
Interior Mechanic: Todd Foster
Hometown: Birmingham, Alabama
Notes of Interest:
The Bank of America Roval 400 will mark Kyle Busch’s 527th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start and his 32nd NASCAR Cup Series start at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway combining the 1.5-mile oval and road course. Sunday is the second-ever race on the 2.28-mile, 17-turn “roval” road-course layout.
Busch has career totals of 55 wins, 31 poles, 197 top-five finishes, 291 top-10s and 17,218 laps led in 526 career Cup Series races. His most recent Cup Series win came in June at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. Busch’s most recent pole, the 30th of his career, came last October at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
During last year’s inaugural event on the Charlotte roval, Busch was within the top-five on the final restart but was collected in a multicar accident that kept him from a top-five finish. However, overall Busch has a strong record at each of the other two road-course venues on the Cup Series circuit –Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. Combined, Busch has four wins at the two road-course venues along with 11 top-five finishes and 19-top 10s.
Moving on to the Round of 12: On his way to winning the regular-season championship, Busch notched 30 playoff points. On top of those 30 points, winning the regular-season championship added a 15-playoff-point bonus for a total of 45. He can carry those over to start each round of the playoffs, and he has already clinched a berth into this year’s Round of 12 by virtue of his runner-up finish last weekend at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Following this weekend’s road-course race at Charlotte, the Round of 12 will kick off with the Oct. 6 race at Dover (Del.) International Raceway.
55 Career Cup Series Wins: With his Cup Series win at Pocono this past June, the 55th points-paying win of his career, Busch sits tied for ninth all-time in Cup Series wins with NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace. With his 40th Cup Series victory at Bristol in August 2017, Busch became the fourth-youngest driver to reach 40 Cup Series wins at 32 years, 109 days, behind only Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon and Herb Thomas.
All-Time JGR Wins Leader: With his Brickyard 400 win in July 2016, Busch passed Tony Stewart for most all-time Cup Series wins for JGR. Busch now has 51 wins for JGR to Stewart’s 33 following his most recent win at Bristol, along with besting Stewart’s Cup Series career win total.
207: Busch enters the weekend at Charlotte with 207 wins among NASCAR’s top three divisions – Cup (55), Xfinity (96) and Truck (56) – following his most recent Xfinity Series win at Indianapolis three weekends ago.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
