Kyle Busch will make his 500th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The 33-year old Busch has been victorious 51 times during his Cup career, which began in 2005 as a full-time driver in the series.
“I think it means that I’m old,” Busch laughed. “But seriously, just makes you reflect on all the great things we’ve been able to accomplish over the years and all the people that have helped me get to where I am and win all the races we’ve been able to win.
“You just think of all the guys at JGR and Toyota and all the guys on my teams that have helped me accomplish everything that I have in my career.”
Busch has always been stellar at Atlanta and has compiled some impressive stats at the 1.5-mile Georgia speedway during his Cup career. Busch has two wins, five top-five finishes and seven top-10s and has led a total of 432 laps in 20 career Cup Series starts at Atlanta. Busch’s average Atlanta finish is 14.8.
Despite those numbers Busch is not taking anything for granted this weekend.
“Atlanta is one of those places where anything can happen and we’ll definitely have to be on our toes there this weekend with our first race at a 1.5-mile oval this season,” said Busch, who started the year with a second place Daytona 500 finish last week.
“You have to have good grip there, you have to have good (tire) fall-off – you have to be fast to start a run, yet you don’t want to fall off more than anybody else. So you have to take care of your stuff and bide your time a little bit. That lends itself to options by the driver to either push hard early (in the run) or save a little and be there late.”
Then there’s the challenge of the dramatically different Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rules package, a variation of which makes its debut at Atlanta. The hope is that the new rules will create tighter competition but Busch is unsure how things will pay out on track.
“The problem is still creating something that’s viable for the fans to see – excitement,” he said. “When you have a guy who’s leading the race and is out front by six seconds, it’s not exciting. I get it and I understand where we’re going and what we’re doing.
“It’s just frustrating as a driver to know that’s what we’re doing and how we anticipate all the races kind of playing out at the 1.5-mile and above racetracks, so I don’t exactly know what to expect starting this weekend.”
