First-Year Team Approaches Inaugural Event with Winning Car and Driver

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In: Xfinity Series News

This week the NASCAR Nationwide Series makes its inaugural visit to the famed Indianapolis (Ind.) Motor Speedway (IMS), and the No. 54 Monster Energy Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) team is prepared for an exciting run with their owner-driver behind the wheel. Kyle Busch will make his 11th start in the company-owned Toyota, competing in the Indianapolis 250 event on Saturday. Busch has seen the famed surface before in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but along with 42 other competitors, will be visiting the special brick surface for the first time in the Nationwide Series.

KBM isn’t taking just any No. 54 Monster Energy car from its fleet to race the 2.5-mile oval, it is taking the same Camry the young company won with at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway in April, with brother and company co-driver Kurt Busch. The elder Busch also ran winning chassis nine at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, where he produced a top-five finish for the team, who with nearly every stop on the schedule thus far, has been faced with the task of learning a new track.

The Mooresville, NC-based race team was essentially formed in 2003 when the younger Busch built and raced his first Legends Cars. That passion for competing and winning grew into a multi-team business, including a Championship NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team, who at the end of 2011 added a NASCAR Nationwide Series team to the portfolio.

In the first 18 starts of the season, the KBM Monster Energy team has accomplished one win, seven top-five finishes, 10 top-10 finishes and led 167 laps. Kurt Busch has seen the wheel eight times and will reappear nine more times through the balance of the 2012 schedule.

For the company owner to lead the team into Indianapolis, in search of that first victory himself, is special. IMS is a track mortared with victories recorded by many of motorsports’ finest. As the winningest driver in the Nationwide series, with 51 career victories, it’s fitting for Busch to drive the No. 54 Toyota and compete with his young team, in the opening event at such a historical speedway.

KBM PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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