As Halloween quickly approaches, there was a time not long ago where the scariest thing for Kyle Busch in October was the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stop at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
But Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Halloween Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), heads to Kansas for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 coming off a third-place finish during his most recent trip there last October. On top of that, Busch was able to test at the 1.5-mile oval last month with crew chief Adam Stevens and his M&M’S team. Busch hopes he can parlay last October’s third-place finish at Kansas and recent test session into another solid top-five or even a win this weekend at a track that has caused him misfortune, but also a place where the surface has finally started to wear in and become more agreeable.
This weekend’s Kansas race took on added importance for Busch and the M&M’S Halloween team after misfortune struck last weekend at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway during the first race of the Contender Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. While running third, Busch and Kyle Larson made contact at the entrance to pit road. The resulting damage and subsequent repair job put Busch and the No. 18 team behind the eight-ball. They were able to salvage a 20th-place finish, however, and ended up just 10 points behind the eighth and final transfer spot to the next round with two races remaining in the Contender Round. With this weekend’s race at Kansas, followed by the huge unknown in the restrictor-plate race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, there’s plenty of opportunity for Busch to race his way into a transfer spot to the Eliminator Round.
Despite the dry spell at Kansas in NASCAR’s top series, Busch has tasted success at Kansas in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition – as is the case at most racetracks on the Xfinity schedule – with victories in 2007 and last fall, a runner-up finish in 2009, and a pair of third-place runs in 2006 and 2010. Busch also brought home a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win at Kansas in April 2014, all of which no doubt add to his growing confidence on the fast, 1.5-mile oval.
Busch has won at 18 of the 23 tracks at which the Sprint Cup Series competes, and he’ll hope that he can cross another track off the dwindling list and earn an automatic bid to the Eliminator round. The Las Vegas native has only failed to reach victory lane in Sprint Cup competition at five tracks – Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Charlotte and Kansas.
So, as Busch heads back to the Heartland this weekend for the fifth race of NASCAR’s playoffs, he’ll count on his growing confidence with his Halloween-themed M&M’S Camry, knowing that he and his team are more than capable of moving up in the Chase standings Sunday afternoon.
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