Daytona 500 win on Kyle Busch’s to-do list

There‘s not much Kyle Busch hasn‘t accomplished within the NASCAR Cup Series realm.

Busch is the only active driver with multiple championships, from his triumphs in 2015 and 2019. His 59 career wins top the current leaderboard of those in the garage. And he has won the sport’s All-Star Race (2017) and three crown-jewel events — Southern 500 in 2008, Coca-Cola 600 in 2018 and Brickyard 400 in 2015-16.

The only gem he‘s missing there is the Daytona 500.

“I‘ve yet to win that race,” Busch said Tuesday during a Zoom teleconference. “That‘s kind of the biggest thing, the last checkbox on my radar, my career that I‘ve yet to get.”

DAYTONA 500: At-track schedule | Betting odds | Every winner ever

The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will have his 17th chance at the Harley J. Earl Trophy next Sunday with the 64th running of The Great American Race at Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 20 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“That would be nice,” Busch said. “And to do it in the Next Gen car would be fantastic as the first superspeedway race with it.”

The Next Gen car made its debut last Sunday in The Busch Light Clash exhibition at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Busch finished runner-up to Joey Logano by 0.877 seconds. Busch, however, led a race-high 64 of the 150 laps.

“We didn‘t have a very good Phoenix test, which is representative,” Busch said. “And so we came out of the box at (the Coliseum) really good I thought and ready to go and the best of our team obviously, so that was really good. That was a little bit of a confidence booster for me and my guys getting into that part of the season, with Phoenix and Martinsville coming up (soon). Hopefully that bodes well. We‘ll see.”

CLASH: Race results from the Coliseum | Kyle Busch finishes second

Results from the temporary quarter-mile track NASCAR built inside the Coliseum will translate more to a 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway or 1-mile Phoenix Raceway than the 2.5-mile beast that is Daytona. Phoenix is the fourth race on the schedule, Martinsville eighth. So, pocket Clash notes until then. They, too, will have a different rules configuration than Daytona anyway.

Daytona will require Next Gen cars to have an engine-output target of 510 horsepower and a 7-inch rear spoiler. NASCAR held two offseason tests — one back in September, the other in January — to determine its superspeedway package. Busch wasn‘t present at either, but he discussed findings with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, along with brother and fellow Toyota pilot Kurt Busch.

“There was a little bit of tandem effect that they were trying to do that seemed to be a little effective, not as bad as what we saw back in 2010, 2011, whenever that was when we were doing this,” Kyle Busch said. “But I think the other thing of this car is it‘s going to react very similar in the draft. You‘re going to need majority of cars to go faster than fewer cars, so whichever line has the most power in it is going to be the faster line. I anticipate there being two-wide action. I don‘t know how slippery the cars felt while in the draft, especially the buffering effect that get as well as the straightaway looseness that you get when the cars aren‘t loaded like you feel when you‘re in the corner. A lot of unknowns for me, so I‘m needing to get some of that track time, practice time to kind of feel all that out.”

NEXT GEN: Findings from second Daytona test | Watch drafting practice

And he‘ll get that extra track time, as practice and qualifying make their return in 2022 after a two-year absence for the most part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are two practices on tap next Tuesday, with single-car qualifying set for the following Wednesday. Next Thursday will then showcase the two Bluegreen Vacations Duels before a third practice Friday and the final practice Saturday.

That‘s five days‘ worth of work before the Daytona 500 itself.

“It‘s a clean slate all over,” Busch said. “I mean, you want to win obviously.”

KYLE BUSCH: Every NASCAR Cup Series win | Victories across all three national series