Kyle Busch Motorsports Winchester 400 Preview

Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) will have two chances to bring home its fourth Winchester riffle in Sunday’s Winchester 400 at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway. Cole Rouse is entered in the No. 51 JBL Camry and Noah Gragson will be piloting the No. 18 Switch Camry.

 

Rouse’s first season driving for KBM’s Super Late Model team has been a successful one. The Arkansas native has collected two victories on the CARS Super Late Model Tour and enters next Saturday’s series finale at South Boston (Va.) Speedway with an eight-point advantage in the championship standings.

 

The 20-year-old driver will be making his second start for KBM this year at the track that dubs itself as the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” After starting third in the Winchester 100 ARCA/CRA Super Series race that was part of the World Stock Car Festival in September, Rouse took the lead on lap seven and remained at the front of the field until he was slowed by a mechanical failure on lap 74. After dominating the majority of the event, the No. 51 team was relegated to a disappointing 11th-place finish.

 

Sunday will be Rouse’s second career start in the Winchester 400. He competed in the 2015 event for Kevin Krider Motorsports, but was plagued by ignition issues. He was forced to start from the rear of the field, in the 32nd position, but had maneuvered his way just outside the top 10 on lap 147 when the issues resurfaced and ended his day. He was credited with a 31st-place finish.

 

Gragson will be making his second of three-scheduled starts behind the wheel of a KBM Super Late Model in 2017. In May, he made his debut for the team in the U.S. Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. His 14.363-second lap in practice topped the speed charts for the weekend and was faster than Denny Hamlin’s Monster Energy Series track record, but he ended up qualifying 21st for the 100-lap event and after getting caught up in an accident on lap nine was relegated to a 30th-place finish.

 

The Las Vegas native is in his first full-time season driving the No. 18 Switch Tundra for KBM in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He has collected three poles,113 laps led, three top-five and 11 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 11.6 across 18 starts thus far in his rookie campaign.

 

The 19-year-old was victorious the last time he raced a Super Late Model. He returned to the Bullring at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, the track where he cut his racing teeth, and won the 50-lap NASCAR Super Late Model race on Sept. 9 for Dustin Ash Motorsports.

 

Sunday will mark Gragson’s second start in the prestigious Winchester 400. He started 13th and finished 11th in last year’s event competing for Wauters Motorsports.

 

KBM’s impressive resume of Super Late Model wins includes three wins in the All-American 400. Owner-driver Kyle Busch was victorious in 2009 and Erik Jones collected back-to-back wins in 2013 and 2014.

 

KBM PR