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 With a win in tow from Sonoma -- arguably the hardest task in his
quest to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup -- Busch scraped
the wall on Lap 17 at Daytona late Sunday night and had to pit for
repairs, falling two laps behind into 38th. A finish that low could
have doomed him, but Busch battled back in the wee hours Monday
morning to an 17th-place showing.
"I'm just really proud of how hard all the guys worked to get us
back to where we were," said Busch, who roughly needs to average a
13th-place finish in the remaining nine races of the regular season
to reach the top 30. "Our night could have been much worse than it
was as far as the points are concerned."
Busch will continue his march toward the top 30 -- and the
subsequent Chase berth -- in Saturday's Quaker State 400 presented
by Advance Auto Parts at Kentucky Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN).
A Kentucky visit will surely help Busch's Chase chances. He boasts
more top-five finishes at the 1.5-mile track than any other driver
(three). He won the inaugural race there in 2011.
"I love Kentucky," Busch said. "It was special there in 2011, when
we were able to win the first Cup race there. I look forward to
going back there every year. It's a pretty challenging racetrack.
It's a place that lends itself to different kinds of setups because
it's so rough."
Adding to the challenge at Kentucky this weekend is a new
track-specific aerodynamic rules package implemented by NASCAR
designed to lower downforce and increase passing. It is the first of
five track-specific rules packages drivers will run under this
season.
The other rules package updates will occur at Indianapolis Motor
Speedway (July 26), Michigan International Speedway (Aug. 16),
Darlington Raceway (Sept. 6) and Richmond International Raceway
(Sept. 12).
"I think all of this shows that we remain committed to putting the
best racing on in the world," said Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR executive
vice president and chief racing development officer. "And each of
these, including Kentucky this weekend, I think shows everybody that
we've got several components that make up a rules package each week,
and they can certainly be adjusted, and we will do that if we can do
something that we believe will improve the racing for the fans at
each track."
Busch proved he could quickly adjust to Kentucky by winning at the
1.5-mile track in the first Sprint Cup race held there, so he should
be up to the challenge of adapting to the new aerodynamic package.
He described the feeling of knowing he'll always be the inaugural
Kentucky winner as "cool."
"There aren't many opportunities these days to go to a new venue, so
for us, being able to win the first race there was extra special,"
he said.
Elliott excited for Kentucky after restrictor-plate reversal of
fortune
Before last Saturday, Chase Elliott had never finished higher than
15th at a restrictor-plate track.
Restrictor-plate tracks were the kryptonite to the 19-year-old heir
apparent to Jeff Gordon, who performed like Superman everywhere
else.
In his 47 career starts before Daytona last weekend, Elliott had
only finished outside the top 10 a mere 10 times. Four of those
results came at restrictor-plate tracks.
On Saturday at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Elliott finished third.
"Daytona and Talladega haven't been too good for us this year or
last," Elliott said. "Happy to have a decent finish and to bring the
NAPA Chevrolet home in one piece. I didn't do anything special when
those wrecks took place, I just happened to be in a fortunate spot
and avoided them.
"Definitely haven't been on that end much, especially at Daytona, so
it was nice to get a top five because we certainly needed it."
On Friday night, Elliott will attempt to build on his strong showing
with his first win of the season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race
at Kentucky Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN).
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He finished 12th in his Kentucky debut last June and followed the
performance with a fourth-place showing at the 1.5-mile track in
September.
Elliott will try to add to his Xfinity Series-leading 12 top 10s and
further close the 34-point gap in the standings between him and
front-runner Chris Buescher. The JR Motorsports driver moved past Ty
Dillon in the standings after Daytona to grab the second spot.
Elliott believes he needs to start visiting Victory Lane to
successfully defend his Xfinity Series crown.
"The best way to gain points is to win races," he said. "I think we
need to do that to get it done this year. We were able to do that
last year and I think we can do that this season.
"We just have to get after it and really do our jobs the second half
of the season. If there's any part that counts, this is it, so we
need to go get it done, try to capitalize and hopefully get some
good strong finishes to try to put ourselves in contention to win
races."
Talented trio: Kyle Busch Motorsports' gifted youngsters ready to
capture Kentucky win
When the Kyle Busch Motorsports haulers rolls up to Kentucky
Speedway on Thursday, it will arrive with trucks that will be driven
by a trio of talented young drivers.
Erik Jones, 19, Christopher Bell, 20, and Daniel Suarez, 23, will
try to capture the second consecutive KBM win in the Bluegrass State
in Thursday's UNOH 225 (7:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1). Team owner
Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in last season's event, leading a
race-high 91 laps on his way to Victory Lane.
Jones enters the race coming off his first NASCAR Camping World
Truck Series win of the season at Iowa. He has never competed in a
NASCAR event at Kentucky, but finished sixth at an ARCA race there
in 2013.
"Should be fun, Kentucky is a cool place with a lot of character,"
Jones said. "It's getting rougher and I haven't been there in a few
years, so it should be pretty good and rough now."
Jones' crew chief, Randy Fugle, said, "We finally put it all
together and collected our first win. Now, we need to go out and get
five or six more."
Fresh off a debut at Iowa where he finished fifth, Bell will make
his first start at an intermediate track. The dirt standout is
transitioning to stock cars and has already won four races in KBM's
Super Late Model.
"Obviously, the top-five run at Iowa was awesome, so anything less
is going to be a letdown, but we need to go there with realistic
expectations of me never running at a track that size," Bell said.
"First, I need to finish the race, but also continue to be
competitive as I gain more experience in these Tundras."
Suarez seems closer to getting his first NASCAR national series win
every time he straps into the No. 51 truck. He finished second in
his last two NCWTS races, at Texas and Dover.
"Kentucky Speedway is a fun, interesting track that is really fast,"
Suarez said. "I'm excited about it, especially since I'm also
competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race there. Running both
events will help me figure the track out quicker and will hopefully
lead to two positive results."
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