COMMENTARY: Busch Enters March In Midseason Form

In just the third week of the 2019 NASCAR season, Kyle Busch appears to be in midseason form. 

Busch scored at LVMS in Trucks...

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is off to a scalding start in all three NASCAR National Series. Two weeks ago he supplanted Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday, Jr. as the all-time winningest driver in NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series history, claiming his  Motor Speedway. He already held the career-wins mark in the Xfinity Series, where he has collected a total of 92 checkered flags.

Busch swept the opening two events of last weekend’s tripleheader in Las Vegas, and only an early pit road speeding penalty in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 cost him a shot at a weekend sweep; relegating him to third behind Team Penske stablemates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

...and Xfinity competition.

Busch’s third-place finish Sunday in Las Vegas followed a runner-up showing in the season-opening Daytona 500 and a sixth at Atlanta Motor Speedway; for an early season average finish of 3.7. He is the only driver to record Top-10 finishes in all three starts this season, and ranks fourth in points earned, trailing only Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. Numbers like that will keep a guy gainfully employed in the NASCAR garage for as long as he likes, and last Thursday, Busch announced that he had signed a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing and longtime sponsor Mars Inc., to continue their combined assault on the NASCAR record books.

“My relationship with Joe, JD and the (Gibbs) family has grown a lot of the years,” said Busch last week. “And each year, I think it gets better and better. Being a driver with them since 2008 has meant the most to my career.

“It’s all about relationships,” he added, “and I feel like the relationship with M&M’s has continued to get better and grown over the years, as well as with Toyota. I have a lot of friendships there.

“You never say never, but I don’t know if you’d ever really see me drive anything different than a Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 M&M’s Toyota. Hopefully, it stays that way. We know it will stay that way for the foreseeable future. I am certainly looking forward to that.”

Busch and Petty: Same, but different.

Busch’s 197 NASCAR National Series wins leave him just three behind the legendary Richard Petty on the all-time list. The mere mention of that impending achievement inspires heated – even venomous – water cooler debate across NASCAR Nation, and at this rate, it’s only a matter of time before NASCAR’s most polarizing driver equals – and then surpasses – the King’s 200-win total.

Petty downplayed the chase late last season, saying, “His 200 and my 200 -- there’s no comparison. I did my thing and he’s doing his, but they’re not the same.” 

For what it’s worth, Busch concurs, saying that his pursuit is not of Petty, but of the second and third men on the Cup win list.

“I feel as though I’m chasing Jeff Gordon (93 wins) and David Pearson (103)," said Busch recently. "I don’t know if I can get there or not, but I’d like to think I can. Nobody will ever touch 200 Cup wins, but it would certainly be nice to go out with 100.”

Comparing Petty’s 200 premier series victories to Busch’s combined Truck-Xfinity-Cup total is like comparing apples to watermelons. But the Las Vegas native is just this close to doing something that only one other person in the history of the sport has ever done.

That alone seems worth of notice and respect.