Despite not being a participant in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) team have shown, without a doubt, that they belong with the sport’s elite.
The driver of the No. 18 SNICKERS Peanut Butter Squared Toyota Camry for JGR has collected four top-five and five top-10 finishes in the seven races contested in this year’s 10-race Chase. In addition to the solid finishes, Busch has led a total of 356 laps, accumulated a driver rating of 103.4 and has an average finish of 11.4.
Even though it was a bitter pill to swallow when the No. 18 team narrowly missed the Chase field, Busch, crew chief Dave Rogers and the entire No. 18 team have shown they were hardly ready to throw in the towel on winning in 2012. After starting the Chase with a solid fourth-place effort at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., Busch ran second the following week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon before engine issues sidetracked another potential top-five finish. The following week, Busch dominated the third Chase race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, leading a race-high 302 laps. But, just as their season has gone, the caution flags did not fall their way and he was forced to pit for fuel with less than 10 laps to go, resulting in a seventh-place finish.
Again, the tough result from Dover didn’t get Busch & Company down as they recorded back-to-back top-five finishes of third and fifth, respectively, at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. The following week at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Busch spun early but rallied to run within the top-10 with 80 laps to go when contact from Ryan Newman sent him into the outside SAFER Barrier and to the garage.
The disappointment at Kansas didn’t rattle the No. 18 team, however, as last weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway Busch rallied from a cut tire that resulted in an early race spin and finished in the runner-up spot just behind five-time champion and current points leader Jimmie Johnson. So while he isn’t a Chase participant, Busch and his team have shown they belong by running up front and being part of the conversation each Chase race thus far.
Next up for Busch is Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, where he will shoot for a long-overdue win during Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 with his SNICKERS Peanut Butter Squared Camry.
Even though Busch has not been able to score a Sprint Cup victory at Texas, he knows his way to victory lane at the 1.5-mile oval, having reeled off an incredible string of five consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series wins there from April 2008 to April 2010.
Busch and his SNICKERS Peanut Butter Squared team head to the Lone Star State this weekend looking to continue chasing the Chase competitors and shooting for his first Sprint Cup win there in the process. Earning the signature cowboy hat and six-shooters as a Texas race winner just might be on the horizon if the last seven races are an accurate indication.
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