Bristol Schedule | Driver Averages
Kurt Busch is hoping to grab the spotlight away from younger brother Kyle in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
While Kyle has been on a red hot streak to start the season, capped off by his win in last week’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, 2018 has been more of an up-and-down ride for older brother Kurt. He’s had a pair of top-10 finishes as well as racking up a pair of stage wins in leading 98 laps. But the Stewart-Haas Racing driver is still winless since he kicked off the 2017 campaign with a Daytona 500 victory.
After a solid outing at Texas where he started from the pole, Busch comes to Bristol with much optimism and rightfully so based on his record at the .533-mile short track. He’s led 1,062 laps at Bristol and has collected five victories since his rookie year in 2001. His Bristol wins in March 2002 and 2003, August 2003, and March 2004 and 2006 put him one victory behind Kyle as the winningest active NASCAR Cup Series drivers at Bristol. Kyle Busch has six victories at Bristol.
“I don’t know what it is about the track,” Busch said when asked about his success. “My first couple times there, I was blown away by the speed and intensity of it. When I went back in the spring of 2002, everything slowed down and it was like I had a perfect manual on how to get around there.
“That was all brought to me by Jimmy Fenning (former crew chief from Roush-Fenway Racing). He really helped calm me down and told me the different points to look for. The biggest key is knowing when to run hard and when not to run hard. If you try to run hard every single lap, you’re not going to make it.”
But it’s been some time since Busch was last victorious in Bristol not coincidentally with the track’s reconfiguration in 2012.
“I haven’t won since they put in the transition banking, the way it goes from the low groove to the high groove,” he said. “They ground the high groove and that seemed to backfire on what they were trying to accomplish. The outside groove is now the preferred groove. When it heats up with rubber, it’s like glue. But you have to wait for it. You have to wait for that rubber to get warm and grab the tires. In the end, though, it’s still the same characteristics of Bristol.
“Lap times are still in the 15-second range. The races I’ve won there, we were maintaining good lap times throughout the 100-lap run. And that’s still what it takes to win at Bristol.”
Busch is coming off his second top five in the last four races at Bristol.
If Busch leads nine laps on Sunday, he will become just the 21st driver in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series history to lead 9,000 laps in his career. Names like Petty, Allison, Earnhardt, Pearson, Gordon, Waltrip and Isaac are on that list.
The sweetest lap Busch is hoping to lead is the last one on Sunday, which would lead to his 30th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory.
