If anyone should be happy about the current Cup schedule, it’s Kyle Busch.
The month of April has Busch getting to visit his two of his best tracks in consecutive weekends.
A week after earning his eighth victory at Bristol Motor Speedway – the most victories he has at any Cup track – Busch will get the chance to follow it up at Richmond Raceway.
The .750-mile track has been the site of six of Busch’s 54 Cup wins, the most for Busch at a track after Bristol. Now, Busch will try to win his third straight Richmond race.
Should he do that, he’d be the fourth Cup driver to win three or more races in a row at Richmond and the first since Bobby Allison (1982-83).
Busch would join Allison, David Pearson (three wins, 1965-66) and Richard Petty’s seven in a row from 1970-73.
In this race last year, Busch started from the rear for unapproved adjustments and led 32 laps to claim the win.
“I always looking forward to Richmond,” Busch said in a media release. “Obviously, last year was really good for us there, even though we didn’t have the best car there in the spring, (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) and the pit crew guys were able to put me in a good position to win and we capitalized on that, as well. Certainly want to keep the momentum rolling from last week and really the start of the season for us, keep that top-10 streak going, too.”
Busch has finished in the top 10 in all eight races this year, something not done since Terry Labonte in 1992.
At Richmond, Busch has one finish outside the top 10 in his last seven starts.
Busch said Richmond is “getting a little trickier” due to the combination of its aging race surface and the current Cup car.
“The consensus at Richmond is, of course, just trying to get your car to turn, but also having really good forward bite,” Busch said. “You have to be able to get off the corners at Richmond. You have to have good brakes, as well, and be able to turn the center. All of it correlates.
“Everything you want as a racecar driver, you’ve got to have (the) most of all of it and, if you don’t, then you better hope you have more forward bite than the rest of them. That’s sort of the equation of Richmond. It’s a fun place to race. It’s really cool. As a driver, you wish it could widen out and give you more options of being able to run around in different grooves, but it hasn’t shown us that the last couple of years.”
While Busch will attempt to earn his fourth win of the year, he’ll also look to continue the dominance of Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske to open the season.
The two teams are the only organizations to earn wins this year, with JGR claiming five to Penske’s three.
Their command of victory lane also stretches over Richmond.
JGR and Penske have combined to win eight of the last 10 races there. JGR has five wins and Penske has three.
