Kyle Busch The Chase Is On

It was only the first race of the 10-race run to decide the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, but Kyle Busch and his M&M’s team started NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship with a solid effort.

The driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) brought home a seventh-place finish Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, leading 46 laps and enabling the No. 18 team to come out of the gates strong. Under the new NASCAR playoff format, it appears consistency is the formula for advancing through the first two rounds, while winning will be the key once the championship chase comes down to the final six races.

Even more good news for Busch and Company is that the next race on the schedule is Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. It was the site of another strong second place for Busch and the No. 18 team during their last trip there together in July, when they started from the pole. In fact, Busch and the M&M’s team have three consecutive second-place finishes at the 1.058 mile oval dating back to July 2013.

Busch has enjoyed plenty of success at the “Magic Mile” throughout his career as he scored a Sprint Cup win in July 2006 to go with seven top-five finishes and nine top-10s in 19 starts. Outside the Sprint Cup ranks, Busch has four wins, one pole and six top-five results in nine NASCAR Nationwide Series starts at Loudon to go with three wins, one pole and six top-10s in seven NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races there.

With a near-win in July, might this finally be the weekend Busch, crew chief Dave Rogers, and the M&M’s team will have things fall into place in the form of a magical finish together at the “Magic Mile?” If their last trip there is any indication, they just could be the ones to watch come Sunday afternoon.

And while it’s “so far, so good” at the start of this year’s Chase, things could turn into “so far, really good” with another solid run at the outset of this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

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