Busch-Keselowski rivalry bubbles
Drivers with history of squabbling have ruled at Kentucky
For a sports league that has long revolved around rivalries, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has been relatively tame in recent years. But a long simmering rivalry could get reignited Saturday when Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski head to Kentucky Speedway for the Quaker State 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network).
Busch and Keselowski have combined to win five of the first six Cup races at the 1.5-mile oval in Sparta.
“Yeah, it’s just a thing that we have going here at Kentucky Speedway that we’re two of the best guys and two of the most winningest drivers at the Cup Series here,” Busch said. “I’d certainly love to add to my list of being on top, but it’s been fun over the years.”
Busch has seven total wins at the track; he was the first Cup winner there in 2011 and posted another Cup victory in 2015. Keselowski has a series-best three Cup wins there.
Busch says the variance in turns at Kentucky Speedway brings out the best in him.
“Turns 1 and 2 have a little more banking than turns 3 and 4; it’s kind of a little bit flatter. Getting into Turn 3 is really treacherous, really tricky, so it kind of lends itself to drivers who don’t quite have a better skill. All in all, it just kind of lends itself to being a challenging track.”
Busch will run all three races this weekend. Keselowski will skip the Xfinity Series race, which he has won three times, to focus on the Quaker State 400. So about this rivalry. The racers had their most recent run-in after an accident on lap 1 during the Xfinity race at Michigan International Speedway in June — just weeks after Keselowski had criticized Busch for his postrace interview after the Coca-Cola 600, when Busch lost to Austin Dillon by less than one second.
uThe accident drew parallels to a similar one in a 2016 Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway where Busch referred to Keselowski as a dirty driver after a collision sent Busch into the wall late in the race.
In 2013, Keselowski was sent into the wall on a move by Busch at Kansas Speedway — again in the Xfinity Series.
In 2010 at Bristol, Keselowski declared that Busch was “an ass” during Cup driver introductions the day after a Nationwide Series (now Xfinity) race accident that Keselowski blamed on Busch.
Both drivers have pointed out previous opportunities to wreck the other, with Busch saying he was the bigger man for not doing it. Keselowski pointed out he believed he missed the playoffs in 2013 by choosing not to wreck Busch in several key races.
“I could easily have wrecked him and won, but I didn’t want to,” Keselowski wrote on his website Bradracing.com about Busch in 2015. “Kyle runs an extremely fast-paced race. He makes very aggressive traffic moves, and more times than not, he succeeds a higher percentage of the time than anyone who makes those moves. If he was a poker player, he’d be the guy that goes all-in on a pair of 2s and wins. That’s just who he is. When you win that way, it’s really impressive.”