Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Busch Goes For Historic Triple
Kyle Busch is looking to make history at Texas Motor Speedway...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted November 08, 2009   Fort Worth, TX
After winning the Camping World Truck Series race on Friday followed by a win in the Nationwide Series Saturday, Kyle Busch is looking to make history at Texas Motor Speedway with a win in the Cup Series Sunday. (Photos: LAT Photographic)
After winning the Camping World Truck Series race on Friday followed by a win in the Nationwide Series Saturday, Kyle Busch is looking to make history at Texas Motor Speedway with a win in the Cup Series Sunday. (Photos: LAT Photographic)

Kyle Busch is determined to keep NASCAR in the headlines.

With no points races of consequence in any of NASCAR’s three top divisions as the 2009 racing season winds down, Busch will take aim on history this afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway.

If Busch can capture today’s Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race, he’ll do something no one has ever done before: Win races in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions at the same track on the same weekend.

Busch came close at completing the triple once already this season, at Auto Club Speedway in February, where he won the NASCAR Camping World Truck and Nationwide series races before finishing third behind Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon in the Sprint Cup race.

This weekend, Busch won the Truck Series race at TMS Friday night, holding off Matt Crafton and Ron Hornaday Jr., while in Saturday’s Nationwide race, he hammered the field, leading 179 of 200 laps.

Of course, the Sprint Cup race will be a little tougher. Busch will roll off fifth in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota this afternoon. It will be his first race with Dave Rogers as his crew chief, following the ouster of Steve Addington, with whom Busch had won 12 Cup races in 69 starts.

“I feel like we have a decent car right now,” Busch said of his Sprint Cup ride. “Maybe not a winning car now, but a decent car, where we can contend and if things fall our way we can do it.”

Lately on the Cup side, Busch has been erratic, and that’s been the case so far this weekend at Texas.

“There were some areas where we felt really good about it. There were some other times where we didn’t feel so good about it,” he said. “I like what’s going on there. I think we’ve got about a fifth to 10th-place car right now. If we can just hang there throughout the day and make some changes to it, have Dave (Rogers) learn some things then we can be contenders.”

And that’s what Busch is looking for.

“If you’re contenders at the end of the race, you never know,” he said. “It can be a fuel mileage race, you can be on the right strategy. If you keep yourself in contention, you can come out with a win. If the luck is on our side, and we play it smart then we could come out of here three for three and that would be pretty special. The closest I’ve gotten is a first, first and third at California earlier this year. Maybe we can try to come two spots better.”

In truth, Busch’s pursuit of history is one of the few dramatic storylines left this season.

Three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson enters today’s race with a lead of 184 points over Mark Martin and 192 over Jeff Gordon. In the first seven Chase races, Johnson has had an average finish of 3.43, and in his last six Texas starts, Johnson has finished first or second four times.

Even if Martin were to win the last three races and lead the most laps in each, he’d win the championship if he averaged a 10th-place finish in the final three races.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief 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



tom_jensen's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.