Las Vegas Schedule | Starting Lineup
Kyle Busch wants to add another Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win at his home track Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400.
Busch won the 2009 edition of the race but has yet to return to Victory Lane in the Cup Series. It’s something that is high on his list of priorities and Busch looks to add win number two to his resume Sunday. He started off the NASCAR triple header weekend with a win in Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race (Read More) and will also take part in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 Xfinity Series event.
But a victory in Sunday’s main event would be the cherry on top of Busch’s homecoming sundae.
“It would certainly be special to win here,” Busch said when he visited the LVMS media center on Friday. “I love coming out to Las Vegas.
“You want to win any weekend, but especially when it’s in your hometown and you remember this track being built from the ground up and the hole being dug in which we’re sitting in right now.”
Busch competed at the Bullring short track at LVMS during his formative years in the sport before graduating up to NASCAR’s top tier. His 2009 Cup Series win will always be special to the Las Vegas native.
“It was cool,” he said. “To go out there and to run a smooth race and to have a shot at winning at the end of the race, that’s what it’s all about. I watched Vegas being built from the ground up, and I remember when it wasn’t anything but a gleam in the eye of Richie Clyne (founder of Las Vegas Motor Speedway) – all those guys who made that place happen.”
Short of winning, Busch would like to get things headed in the right direction after a somewhat slow start to the 2018 season. He experienced tire issues in the Daytona 500 that kept him from being a factor to open the campaign.
Last week at Atlanta, Busch won the pole but wasn’t able to contend for the win and eventually settled for a seventh-place finish.
But like most drivers this weekend in Vegas, Busch is preaching patience and doesn’t believe there will be a true indication of team’s strengths of weaknesses for several weeks.
“I think you’ll have a sense of who’s good, but I don’t think it’ll tell you everything that you need to know,” Busch said of this week’s race at LVMS. “I mean, obviously (Martin) Truex (Jr.) was really good here, but he was good throughout the entire season. I think (Kyle) Larson was good here, Brad (Keselowski) was good here, but they kind of tallied or fell off a little bit through mid-part of the season. I didn’t think we were that great here. We ran sixth or seventh all day last year if my memory serves me right and then had a shot to finish third or fourth and didn’t, but we came on halfway through the season and really got hot there towards the end.
“I don’t think it’s a huge telltale, but it’ll obviously give you an idea of who’s going to be tough, I’d say up through Charlotte, up through May.”
