If Kyle Busch were going to allow himself to feel super optimistic and keenly confident in scoring his first win of the season, this may be the week as the NASCAR Cup Series arrives at Kentucky Speedway for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart (2:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Busch was the inaugural winner (2011) at Kentucky, added another trophy in 2015 and his 621 laps led there is most among all his competitors. He’s led 100 laps or more in a race four times in the nine-year history of the event, including a dominating 163 of 267 in his 2015 win. He has eight top-10 finishes in nine races, including seven top-five results – two of which were runner-up showings in addition to his victories.
Busch’s most recent runner-up effort came last summer when his older brother Kurt won by a scant .076-second – the closest margin in track history – after jumping to the lead on an overtime restart and setting the stage for a brotherly 1-2 finish.
Kyle Busch, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota drew the pole position for Sunday afternoon’s race and the race winner has started on the front row in five of the nine races at Kentucky.
Busch has nine top-10 finishes in 16 races this season, but this marks only the second time in the last four seasons that he hasn’t won already by the 17th stop on the NASCAR Cup Series racing calendar. He has three Xfinity Series and one Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series victories at Kentucky as well.
Certainly, Busch’s older brother Kurt is looking to answer his 2019 win. The driver of the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet has six top-10 finishes in nine races, including four of the last five years. However, only one driver, JGR’s Martin Truex Jr., has won back-to-back events (2017-18) at Kentucky. And 12 of Truex’s 27 career wins have come on 1.5-mile tracks like Kentucky. His 2018 win there came from the pole position.
This venue could also be a place Brad Keselowski has circled on his calendar. The 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion has a series-best three wins at Kentucky. The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford earned the most dominant win in the track’s young history – leading 199 of 267 laps in route to his 2014 victory from the pole position. And his 4.399-second victory in 2012 is still the largest margin of victory in NASCAR Cup Series competition there.
Keselowski has nine top-10 finishes in the last 11 races this season – 11 top-10s on the year – including his two victories (at Charlotte-1 and Bristol-1).
Certainly, there are two marquee names still looking for a maiden Kentucky victory. Championship leader – and last week’s Indy winner – Kevin Harvick has six top-10 finishes in nine Kentucky starts, but only one top-five (fifth place in 2018). The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford won the pole position in 2016 and led a race best 128 laps only to finish ninth – and those are the only laps he’s ever led. Last year he finished 22nd. Kentucky and the Charlotte ROVAL are the only two tracks left on the schedule Harvick has yet to win at.
Denny Hamlin, who looked poised to celebrate his first Indianapolis win last weekend before surrendering the lead and crashing with five laps remaining, is also winless at Kentucky. All four of his top-10 finishes on the 1.5-mile Kentucky oval have been top five runs. His best finish is third and he’s done that twice – in 2012 and 2015. He was fifth in 2019.
Hamlin has been particularly strong this season, earning his third Daytona 500 victory to start the year and adding three more wins since. He’s led laps in the last five races earning two (Homestead and Pocono) of those victories and is hopeful that success continues this weekend.
“Kentucky is a place where I haven’t gotten a win yet, but we’ve been close a few times,” said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “We’ve got a few top-five finishes, but just haven’t been able to close it out at the end of the race. Last year we were fast and could run up front, but had to start from the back late in the race and then made a strategy call to try to give us a chance at a win, but we finished fifth.
“With the way this FedEx Camry team has been performing this year, I don’t see any reason why we can’t change that this weekend and get our first win at Kentucky. We’ll put Indy behind us and go to Kentucky and give it all we can to get the win.”
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
