Kyle Busch Setting a New Standard of Dominance with Mastery of 3 NASCAR Series
Is there still such a condition as Kyle Busch victory fatigue?
At some point, it gets palatable, right? The stages—anger, revulsion, grudging acceptance, embrace—should have run their course by now.
At the Sprint Cup level, which, honestly, is the only one that matters much, the younger of the championship-winning Busch brothers has only won two races. The last two. Through the still-small sample of seven, his average finish is 5.9. Last year he won the title, and the norm was 10.8, so he can't keep this pace up.
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Can he?
| Series | Races | Wins | Avg. Finish | Laps Led |
| Sprint Cup | 397 | 36 | 14.8 | 11,497 |
| Xfinity | 316 | 80 | 9.2 | 16,542 |
| Camping World Truck | 130 | 45 | 6.9 | 5,724 |
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second but by a lot (3.904 seconds), said in a media conference, "We had a fast car, probably good enough to win. We finished up where we should have. We need a win. We'd love a win. I know our fans want a win really bad.
"The guy (Busch) is good."
Sure, Cup is what matters, but Busch completed his second straight weekend sweep. He won the Camping World Truck Series and Cup races in Martinsville, Virginia, and Xfinity Series and Cup at Texas Motor Speedway. He won at Martinsville in the daytime and Fort Worth at night. Just this year, he's won four out of five in the Xfinity Series.
For Busch, Xfinity is darn near infinity.
"I think it's just a part of everyone coming together," Busch said. "I think its a part of the whole team. It's not just me, it's not just (wife) Samantha, but it's (crew chief) Adam Stevens, it's Coach (and owner), Joe Gibbs, it's the organization and everyone rallying around us.
"It's my medical team, everyone that helped me, as well, getting me healthy, too, and forcing me to do the therapies, and things like that, getting up in the morning and...trying to to get better faster."
The medical reference goes back to the serious injuries Busch endured in an Xfinity Series crash before the 2015 Cup season even started. It was when he missed the season's first nine races but managed to make the Chase and dominate it.
Gibbs can be maddeningly positive. At the moment, he has every reason.
"It's hard to get a chemistry like Adam (Stevens) and Kyle have," Gibbs said. "I think they developed it in the Xfinity program and everything that happened there, but to get them out to do what they did last year, Adam's first year (as a Cup crew chief), just really, I think, it's a special chemistry that they have, and I think it shows up week after week."
Not only does Busch show up every week. He shows up everywhere every week. Does it make him better? It obviously doesn't hurt.
At Joe Gibbs Racing, home to a fleet of four, Busch steers the flagship, but the ex-NFL coach's Toyotas finished first, seventh (pole winner Carl Edwards), 11th (Matt Kenseth) and 12th (Denny Hamlin) in Texas. In the points standings, they are first (Busch, of course), fourth (Edwards), eighth (Hamlin) and 12th (Kenseth). Kenseth has been maniacally unlucky, but it seems a foregone conclusion that he will come around.
Busch is whimsical and charming when he wins, prickly and petulant when he doesn't, and the dark side of his personality is the moon's because, at the moment, it isn't seen.
When asked about "the magic for the JGR organization," Busch said, in the boss's presence, "I think the magic is Kyle Busch, but that's just me. Right, Joe?"
Gibbs undoubtedly, and theatrically, feigned shock.
"Just when I thought you were starting to really...don't freak out on me," he quipped, as is his wont.
Drum roll, please.
Having gotten his obligatory rise out of Gibbs, Busch said, "You've got to have all the puzzle put together, but I think, more importantly, we've got good cars, but the crew chiefs are just doing a really good job right now, I think, in just being able to apply all the things we've learned over the [last] couple of years."
Anytime NASCAR holds a race at a track where IndyCars also compete, the Indy 500 question comes up. Older brother Kurt Busch has made the pilgrimage.
"I don't know," Busch quipped. "I'd give it a whirl, but I've got to get it approved here first (acknowledging Joe the Nervous).
"You know, it would be pretty funny if I can get my Cup sponsors to pay for it. Then it would be pretty easy to convince Joe, so that may be my best strategy, so I'll work on that. We'll see."
Hint, hint. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.
No one who ever appeared in the Monty Python troupe ever said, literally, "say no more" as much as Gibbs probably thought it.
Busch was just having fun, which won't prevent rumors of Indy from spreading like the wildfires that crop up minutely on social media. He'd just completed 800 miles in a single weekend and won both possible checkered flags. The Indianapolis 500 is for the driver who has everything. Kyle Busch has fun racing. Kyle Busch wants everything.
Unlike Busch's utter domination of the Xfinity race, he bided his time on Saturday night. This was appropriate since the rain-delayed Duck Commander 500 lingered on past midnight. He led only 34 laps. Fittingly, 33 of them were the last laps.
He's 30 years old and just entering what is typically a driver's prime. He's good, self-evidently, but he's great because he's sharp, and he's sharp because he races so much.
Eight hundred miles? Piece of cake.
"I guess I'm used to it," Busch said. "I've done it enough over the years now. I've run doubles and triples that I'm accustomed to, being behind the wheel. Joe (Gibbs) pays me a little extra to make sure I stay in good shape to be able to go those long distances."
In the three "national touring series," the term NASCAR prefers, Busch has won 161 times.
The late Dick Trickle once said, using a bit more colorful language, "You know how you get in shape to drive a...race car? You drive a...race car."
Apparently, it still works.
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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