Busch charges for sixth Cup win this season
On ‘tear right now,’ Kyle tames Pocono to reach milestone
LONG POND, Pa. — Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing team were in sync everywhere on the track but victory lane. When it was time to snap photos of the winners, some members flashed one finger, others held up six.
Yes, that’s one for the win at Pocono Raceway and six for the total this season.
Busch then heard his name shouted from the top of the Richard Petty 200 Victory Circle. The Las Vegas native craned his neck toward the section where the words were flanked by two images of Petty in his feathered Stetson hat and dark glasses.
Busch still has a long chase toward Petty on the Cup wins list, but it hasn’t kept the 33-year-old star from thinking about how far he can get.
“The top! Pretty simple,” Busch said.
Busch had no one to bump him out of the lead this week and stormed from the bottom half of the field Sunday at Pocono Raceway to win the Gander Outdoors 400, his sixth NASCAR Cup victory of the season.
While champagne was sprayed on the podium, team owner Joe Gibbs was a safe distance from the party, a Super Bowl ring glistening on a finger he plugged into his ear to muffle the noise as he talked on the phone.
“Crazy, man. He’s on a tear right now,” he said to the other side.
The milestones kept piling up for Busch in a race where he matched Kevin Harvick for most wins this season.
Busch tied three-time champ Tony Stewart for 13th on the career wins list with 49.
“You keep reaching higher up the ladder and you keep reaching more milestone drivers,” Busch said. “Tony Stewart is one of the all-time best and one of the drivers that I was a fan of growing up. It’s awesome to be able to tie him. There’s many more. We want to keep going.”
Gibbs fielded cars for both Busch and Stewart and said both drivers were born to race.
“Very talented, driven, they want to go to the front,” Gibbs said. “Both of them were real talented, that’s for sure.”
Busch, who won eight times in 2008, made it look easy at Pocono this weekend, with a win Saturday in the Truck Series race. He won for the 192nd time over the Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series.
“How many can you get? I don’t know. I’d like to think everything’s achievable,” Busch said.
He has Cup wins this year at Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Charlotte and Chicagoland. He hasn’t gone more than three races without a winning a race since April.
Busch had never won at Pocono until July 2017. He’s won 10 races since that date and led more than 2,000 laps.
The only quibble with all this success?
“I do have a trophy case problem,” Busch said, laughing.
Busch was set to start second, but his No. 18 Toyota was one of 13 cars dumped to the back of the pack for flunking post-qualifying inspection. The penalized cars included Harvick, who used a bump-and-run on the 18 with seven laps left last week at New Hampshire to knock Busch out of contention.
Oh well.
Much like the qualifying penalty, last week was just a minor afterthought.