Kurt Busch is fifth in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings and, if certain things happen, he can advance to the winner-take-all Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano are locked in via their wins at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Busch is 28 points behind his brother Kyle Busch, who’s third in the standings, and 25 behind defending-champ Martin Truex Jr., who currently holds down the fourth and final cutoff position. So if Kurt Busch has a great day and his little brother and Truex both struggle Sunday at ISM Raceway near Phoenix, he could advance to the Championship 4.
A mathematics professor at Brown University could figure out all the different point scenarios Busch would need to advance. But the 2004 Cup Series champion seems to prefer a much simpler method – one with a guarantee.
Win at Phoenix in Sunday’s Can-Am 500k and he’s automatically in the Championship 4. Or simply, “Win and In.”
Getting the opportunity to race at the mile oval in the desert west of Phoenix – the same track where he once cheered for many of his racing heroes – was a dream come true for Busch. Racing at the track was like a home game for Busch, who also attended college for several semesters at the University of Arizona, just down the road in Tucson, before making it in NASCAR’s big leagues.
While he was coming up through the ranks, Busch made a number of race starts at Phoenix, competing in the likes of NASCAR’s Southwest Series tour. Then, in 2000, Busch took to the track for the first time as a competitor in NASCAR’s top touring series, competing in both the Camping World Truck Series race in March, in which he finished fourth, and then in the Cup Series race in November later that same season, when he finished 29th.
Since his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Phoenix, it has been a track where Busch has performed consistently. Busch has one win, seven top-five finishes and 18 top-10s there. Additionally, the 40-year-old driver has led 751 laps, has an average starting position of 12.5, an average finish of 13.6, and has completed 99.6 percent – 9,634 of 9,675 – of the laps he’s contested there.
This weekend’s event is also the first at what can be considered the new ISM Raceway. The start-finish line was moved to what used to be turn two and the original grandstands were torn down and the garages were replaced.
So if Busch can score the victory at the “new” ISM Raceway, he will punch his ticket to the Championship 4.
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