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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: A Return to the Front
When Kyle Busch took the checkered flag last spring at Atlanta, it broke a 147-race winless streak - nearly four full seasons for the No. 18 team...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 04, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Kyle Busch has had a great start to the 2009 season with a Vegas victory, a third-place finish at Auto Club Speedway and a strong run in the Daytona 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

When Kyle Busch won last year’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, it made national headlines because it was the first time a Toyota was victorious in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

But for Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing crew, many of whom had long tenures with the team, the victory meant something wholly different and more significant personally. Bobby Labonte won a Cup championship with the No. 18 JGR squad in 2000 a total of 21 races in nine years, but the team had fallen on hard times in recent years.

In fact, when Busch took the checkered flag last spring, it broke a 147-race winless streak — nearly four full seasons for the No. 18 team. As Busch took his victory lap at Atlanta, JGR Vice President of Competition Jimmy Makar got on the radio, telling him, “Kyle Busch, thank you for bringing the 18 back.” Given that Makar was Labonte’s crew chief during the team’s halcyon days, it’s no surprise that he was especially emotional about seeing the 18 in victory lane again.

And to his credit, Busch understood the significance of what he and the team accomplished last year in Atlanta. “It was really awesome to see all the 18 guys back in victory lane at Atlanta and enjoying the win,” he said. “I remember the years of watching Bobby Labonte dominate at Atlanta and plenty of other places. To see the smile on everyone’s face was great, especially (crew chief) Steve Addington and how excited he was about his first Cup win. And, of course, to get Toyota the win – well, it just all meant so much.”

Of course, Busch had another, and for more recent, emotional victory, claiming last Sunday’s Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his hometown track.

“I don’t know if it’s set in, yet, or not,” Busch said of his Las Vegas victory. “But it feels pretty good. I don’t care when it sets in. It’s cool. To go out there and to run a smooth race, and to have a shot at winning the race at the end of the race, is what it’s all about. I watched Vegas being built from the ground up, and I remember when it wasn’t anything but a gleam in (developer) Richie Clyne’s eye – all those guys who made that place happen.”

Busch has had a great start to his season with his Vegas victory, a third-place finish at Auto Club Speedway and a strong run in the Daytona 500, where he led the most laps before being knocked out in an accident not of his making. And that gives him a tremendous amount of confidence about repeating in Atlanta.

“We didn’t let Daytona haunt us,” Busch said. “We went to California, ran a smart race and finished third. We went to Las Vegas, ran a smart race. We won the race. We weren’t the best car at either place, but we were the best car in Daytona and I felt like we missed out there. This could have been a first-third-first season, thus far. It is what it is. All you do now is look ahead to Atlanta this weekend.”

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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