Coming off a dominant victory from the pole, at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, Monster Energy athlete Kyle Busch and the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) team now tackle the 1.5-mile D-shaped, tri-oval of Chicagoland (Ill.) Speedway in Joliet. No strangers to the winner’s circle at this track, the NASCAR Nationwide Series team’s race at Chicago last fall proved successful, in a similar manner, when Busch grabbed the pole-qualifying position and led 195 of 200 laps before snatching his 61st career win and 50th series victory behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry. Busch’s win last year set a series record for leading the most laps at a 1.5-mile race track, surpassing Dale Earnhardt’s 194 laps led at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in 1986. The win from the pole position was Busch’s 19th – another series record.
Busch’s Chicagoland success includes victory in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions including three wins in each of the Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as well as one win from the pole in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Other finishes across the three series include 14 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes along with 1145 laps led.
Crew Chief Adam Stevens is ready for the Chicago return. Stevens has led series regular Kyle Busch and team to five wins in 25 races so far this season. With a dominant victory in last week’s event at Richmond, the JGR team and owner J.D. Gibbs continue to battle their Owner’s Championship points’ position–still in second place, now 18 points behind the No. 22 Penske Ford. This is the exact point position they were in one year ago coming into the Chicagoland race. This week they aim to take a bigger bite out of the lead, with a successful run, that hopefully catapults them into a winning position for the season finale in eight weeks.
KBM PR
