Kyle Busch could wrap up the NASCAR Nationwide Championship this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Kyle Busch admits that winning a NASCAR Nationwide Series title isn’t the same as winning a Sprint Cup Series crown, nor would it entirely atone for him missing this year’s Chase For The Sprint Cup.
But as the Las Vegas native closes in on his first NASCAR championship, he unhesitatingly asserts that a Nationwide title would shoot to the top of his list of motorsports accomplishments, which include 16 Cup wins.
“It would be the biggest one I have right now,” Busch says. “The only other championship that I can say I have is Legends cars back at my home track in Vegas. I missed too many races to win a Late-Model championship that year, and so [a Nationwide title] would be pretty big.”
Busch, who enters Saturday’s Able Body Labor 200 at Phoenix International Raceway 247 points ahead of second-place Carl Edwards and another 20 up on Brad Keselowski, can clinch the championship a week early by leaving Phoenix with a 195-point lead.
If Busch finishes at least seventh with no laps led, ninth with at least one lap led or 10th with the most laps led, he’ll seal the championship no matter how Edwards performs.
To clinch in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch just needs an average finish of 30th over the last two races, a 32nd-place finish and a lap led in each event or a 33rd-place finish and the most laps led in each event.
Busch was docked 25 driver points Wednesday for a rules infraction by his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, leaving him a little smaller cushion heading into the last two races, but it would still take a mini-miracle for him to lose the championship.
