Yahoo Autos Busch sees strengths overcoming unknowns in NASCAR’s second half
Kyle Busch is one of two NASCAR Cup Series drivers with a series-leading three victories as the summer push to the playoffs begins at Nashville Superspeedway.
Busch is sixth in the championship standings and enters Nashville (Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, NBC) working on a stretch of four consecutive top-10 finishes. In his first season driving the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, the two-time series champion has merged his style with those already in play with the group led by crew chief Randall Burnett.
In addition to his three wins, Busch is tied with four other drivers for the most top-10 finishes in the series (nine). While he and his team can contend on a near-weekly basis, Busch found it hard to say how close they are to being championship contenders.
“Looking at the last 10 weeks of the schedule, I would say that we feel pretty confident about how we can go about those weeks and those races,” Busch said Friday. “The only one that you kind of circle right now – maybe two – is obviously Bristol and Martinsville with the short track package and us not being great with that. But the rest of the races I’m actually looking forward to; I feel like there is an even slate there for us to be as good as we’ve been this year and go out there and score good strong runs.”
Busch finished eighth at Phoenix Raceway, 14th at Richmond Raceway, and 21st at Martinsville Speedway with the short track aero package. In the non-points All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, which used the same package, he was never a contender and was so far off the pace was lapped by the dominant Kyle Larson.
