.jpg)
O'Reilly Raceway Park
Heading into the Kroger 200 Nationwide Series race at O’Reilly Raceway Park on Saturday night, Kyle Busch is on pace to make Nationwide Series history.
With his Series-leading six wins this season, he seems to be on target to possibly breaking the record for most wins in a season. Busch currently shares the record of 10 wins in a season. His 2008 season, during which he posted 10 wins, ties Sam Ard’s number from 1983.
With his win last Saturday at Gateway International Raceway, Busch joined Jeff Buron in a tie for fourth on the Nationwide Series all-time win list, so he has a more immediate chance this weekend to claim the fourth-position for himself.
On the surface, it would seem that the odds are in Busch’s favor this weekend. After all, in only four Nationwide Series starts at ORP, he has two wins. On the other hand, he finished outside the top-20 in his other two starts. So far, it has been feast or famine for Busch in Nationwide Series action in Indianapolis.
“I think we’ve got a good shot at it,” Busch said of his chances at ORP this time around. “(Crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) and all the JGR Nationwide guys have been working really hard on our short track program this season and it really showed at Richmond, New Hampshire and Gateway so far this year.”
With such a sizeable points lead in the championship standings, Busch could probably afford a hiccup or two if this year’s ORP race ends up proving to be one of those famine instances. With his win at Gateway last weekend, Busch stretched his lead over second-place driver Carl Edwards to 212 points.
Even so, Busch isn’t breathing easy.
“This is the time of the year where you really focus on the championship now that we are past halfway, said Busch. “Just because you have the points lead doesn’t mean you can relax, that’s when bad things can happen and we know that.”
Busch isn’t the only driver heading into Indianapolis with multiple Nationwide Series wins at ORP. Veteran Jason Keller also has two wins in the series at ORP and will be battling Busch to tie Morgan Shepherd for most series wins at the track.
Shepherd, who is still competing full-time in the Nationwide Series after 42 consecutive seasons of running in at least one NASCAR national event, will be there to witness it first-hand if Busch or Keller is able to tie his record.
Eight drivers will include the Nationwide Series on its double-duty schedule this weekend, but only four of those will be Sprint Cup/Nationwide Series double duty drivers. Busch, Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and David Reutimann will run both the Nationwide Series race at ORP on Saturday night and the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at the big track across town on Sunday afternoon.
The other four double duty drivers, Ron Hornaday, Aric Almirola, Terry Cook, and Dennis Setzer will compete in the AAA Insurance Camping World Truck Series race at ORP on Friday night before returning to the track for the Nationwide event on Saturday.
Busch will be running in all three of the weekend’s events.
Television coverage for Saturday’s Kroger 200 is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET start on ESPN.
Comments