Kyle Busch has won at least one Sprint Cup race at all but five racetracks in the series.
Three of those five are 1.5-mile tracks, including Kansas Speedway, site of this Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400.
And of that quintet of tracks the younger Busch brother has gone winless on, none has frustrated him more than Kansas.
In 15 career starts there, he has just one top five and three top-10 finishes overall. He has finished on the lead lap in just eight of those races, as well as racking up four DNFs – all from crashes.
Unlike Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Busch is still trying to find the Yellow Brick Road to Victory Lane in Kansas.
But when asked why that particular track has been such a conundrum, Busch refused to take the blame.
Rather, he points the finger at his car number.
“It’s not my fault I don’t run good there,” Busch said in a Toyota media release. “The 18 car wrecked again [in the spring race], so I think it’s something to do with the 18.”
To further that argument, Busch reflected back upon how young driver Erik Jones also fell victim to the No. 18’s vexing in the spring Sprint Cup race at Kansas, where Jones filled in for the injured Busch.
“I’m not sure what it is, but Jones was doing a fabulous job, he was really fast and looked good and then got caught up in a crash late in the going,” Busch said.
Even with sparse success there, Busch likes racing at Kansas and is looking forward to returning there to compete for the first time in a year.
He’s hoping his worst track on the Cup circuit starts returning some love to him after all the disappointment it’s given him in the past.
“I’m looking forward to getting back, especially with the speed that Erik Jones had with the limited experience he has in a Cup car,” Busch said. “I felt like that was a positive for how Adam Stevens (crew chief) is and what he does with his race cars.
“And then we went there and tested just a few weeks ago also for the single day test that we had as part of the NASCAR plan and things went well. I thought everything was pretty normal and look forward to getting back there.”
Now, if only his car number cooperates.
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