One look at Kyle Busch’s ever-growing trophy case reveals an assortment of trophies for his now 109 overall wins among NASCAR’s top three levels of competition, which includes 25 Sprint Cup Series wins. In fact, one entire trophy case features 13 trophies, alone, from the high-banked Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway half-mile oval.
But even though Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), has more trophies than he probably knows what to do with, there’s one glaring omission from another famous half-mile short track – the traditional, 7-foot-tall clock that Martinsville (Va.) Speedway president Clay Campbell’s late grandfather and track founder, H. Clay Earles, began awarding Martinsville race winners more than five decades ago.
Needless to say, Busch, has his sights set on getting that long-awaited maiden victory at Martinsville, the site of Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race after scoring his career-best finish there of second last October.
Of the 23 venues that will host Sprint Cup events in 2013, Busch has won at least once at 20 of those venues in at least one of NASCAR’s top three divisions – Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Camping World Truck. There are only three current Sprint Cup tracks – Martinsville, Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway – where Busch has not scored a victory in any of NASCAR’s top three series.
Despite the lack of a Martinsville grandfather clock, Busch has plenty of reasons for optimism this weekend, considering how he has been able to pick up his game at the .526-mile paperclip-shaped oval ever since being paired with crew chief Dave Rogers.
During a three-race stretch starting when he joined Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in the spring of 2008, the Las Vegas native never finished better than 24th at Martinsville. But Busch’s fortunes there began to turn around with a solid fourth-place finish in the fall of 2009.
Enter crew chief Rogers in March of 2010. During his first full season under Rogers’ guidance, Busch started a strong string of races at Martinsville with a fourth-place run in October 2010.
In his next trip to the tricky Virginia short track in March 2011, Busch led a race-high 151 laps before scoring his career-best Martinsville finish of third. And, in October 2011, he led another race-high 126 laps before being collected in an accident not of his own doing late in the race. Indeed, Busch feels like the M&M’s team keeps getting closer and closer to that elusive win at Martinsville with each return. Despite a blank in the win column, Busch has compiled a strong record of seven top-five and eight top-10 finishes in his 16 Sprint Cup starts there.
The M&M’s driver will hope to ride the wave of momentum generated by his first victory of the season two weekends ago at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. There, Busch led a race-high 125 laps and brought home the checkered flag in dramatic fashion as he slid to the outside of the dueling Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin coming off of turn four on the final lap.
He’ll hope that momentum continues as he aims for his first Martinsville grandfather clock after knocking on the door during several recent visits to the Southern Virginia short track.
Martinsville Speedway PR
