Kyle Busch: Driver, No. 51 Cessna Toyota
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview:
Event: Wise Power 200, Race 7 of 22, 134 Laps – 30/30/74; 201 Miles
Location: Kansas Speedway in Kansas City (1.5-mile tri-oval)
Date/Broadcast: May 1, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
The Report on ‘Rowdy’:
- Owner-driver Kyle Busch gets behind the wheel of the No. 51 Cessna Tundra Saturday for his fourth of five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts in 2021. ‘Rowdy’ picked up his 60th career victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., in March and in his other two starts, Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway and Richmond (Va.) Raceway, finished runner-up to Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) driver John Nemechek.
- KBM enters Saturday’s event having won the last four Camping World Truck Series races. John Hunter Nemechek started the streak at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway in March and captured KBM’s most recent triumph at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Busch was victorious at Atlanta and Martin Truex Jr. captured his first Truck Series victory at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Dirt Track. It’s the fifth time in the organization’s history that they’ve collected four straight victories but have yet to make it more than four straight.
- Busch, the winningest driver in series history, enters Saturday’s event having won 37.9% (60/158) of the Truck Series races he has entered and finished first or second in 56.3% (89/158). Since the start of the 2018 season, ‘Rowdy’ has finished first (11) or second (five) in 16 of 18 Truck Series starts, resulting in average finish of 3.5 over that span.
- The 35-year-old driver has two wins (2014 and 2017), three top-five and four top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 7.4 across five Camping World Trucks starts at Kansas. In addition to his pair of truck wins, Busch has one NASCAR Cup Series victory (2016, May) and four NASCAR Xfinity Series triumphs (2007, 2014, 2015 and 2016).
- Mardy Lindley has guided the No. 51 Tundra team to two wins across six starts in his first season as a crew chief at Kyle Busch Motorsports. Before arriving at KBM, Lindley guided his drivers to 32 wins and four ARCA Menards Series East championships since 2013, including back-to-back titles with Sam Mayer the last two seasons. Additionally, he earned the ARCA Menards Series Sioux Chief Showdown championship with Mayer in 2020. Behind the wheel, the second-generation driver won 11 races on the Pro Cup Series from 2000 to 2006 and was crowned the series champion in 2001. Lindley’s lone race atop the pit box at Kansas resulted in a 17th-place finish with Zane Smith in the 2018 ARCA Menards Series.
- After six events, the No. 51 ranks second in the Camping World Trucks owner standings, 10 tallies behind KBM’s No. 4 team. The No. 51 team has two wins, with Martin Truex Jr. at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Dirt Track and Busch at Atlanta. The team also leads the series with 249 laps led. As an organization, KBM drivers have combined to lead 67.6% (552/816) of the total laps this season.
- ‘Rowdy’ will pilot the No. 51 for the final time this season June 26 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. Since Textron Aviation became a partner in 2017, Busch has recorded 13 victories, 1,494 laps led and an average finish of 5.1 in 23 starts with the Cessna and Beechcraft brands adorning his Tundra.
- For more than 90 years, Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. company, has empowered our collective talent across the Beechcraft, Cessna, and Hawker brands to design and deliver the best aviation experience for our customers. With a range that includes everything from business jets, turboprops, and high-performance pistons, to special mission, military trainer and defense products, Textron Aviation has the most versatile and comprehensive aviation product portfolio in the world and a workforce that has produced more than half of all general aviation aircraft worldwide. Customers in more than 170 countries rely on our legendary performance, reliability, and versatility, along with our trusted global customer service network, for affordable and flexible flight. For more information, visit www.txtav.com
- Rowdy Energy, the enhanced hydration formula energy drink created by Busch, and vendor partner Hy-Vee will adorn the bedtop of the No. 51 Tundra for Saturday’s race. Hy-Vee is an employee-owned corporation operating more than 275 retail stores across eight Midwestern states with sales of $11 billion annually. The supermarket chain is synonymous with quality, variety, convenience, healthy lifestyles, culinary expertise and superior customer service. Rowdy Energy is currently available at 197 Hy-Vee locations throughout Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Kyle Busch, Driver Q&A:
How do you balance new ideas Mardy (Lindley, crew chief) has versus the notebook KBM has already built?
“Myself with Mardy, we’ve been trying some things that he is used to and that can sometimes get you off a little bit on what setups might be or what the company’s direction might be. I think it’s on me to kind of bring that back in and say, ok we’ve tried those things and we do have a good overall baseline here at KBM that we can fall upon. Mardy is very receptive to that too, and I feel like it’s a good working relationship that he and I have. I’m the guinea pig, I’m the test dummy, they give me all the stuff that everyone wants to try and do, that they think would be more beneficial, and then we put it on my truck because I’m able to give back the most information. I’m able to tell you what is good and what is bad, and we can work on it from there. I feel like John Hunter is excelling with the stuff that they are doing, and I feel like we’re learning with the things that we are doing. It’s everyone at KBM working together to make the organization stronger.”
Kyle Busch Camping World Truck Series Career Highlights:
- Busch has a total of 158 Camping World Trucks starts and is ranked first all-time in wins (60) and average finish (6.7)
- The 35-year-old driver has won 37.9% (60/158) of the NCWTS races he has entered and finished first or second in 56.3% (89/158).
- Busch has a total of 105 top-five and 126 top-10 finishes.
- Busch stands alone as the leader in all-time career wins in NASCAR’s national touring series with 213 total victories. He has earned 57 NASCAR Cup Series wins, 97 NASCAR Xfinity Series wins, and 60 NCWTS wins.
- In August of 2010, Busch made history when he won the NCWTS, NXS and NCS races at Bristol Motor Speedway, becoming the only driver to sweep all three of NASCAR’s top three series at one track on the same weekend. He then repeated the feat in August of 2017.
Kyle Busch’s No. 51 Cessna Tundra:
KBM-054: The No. 51 Cessna team will race KBM-054 for Saturday’s Wise Power 200 at Kansas Speedway. Busch won with the Tundra in its maiden voyage at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. in July of 2018. Saturday’s race will be its first start in 2021, it saw the track three times last year with Raphael Lessard posting a best result of seventh at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected four wins, four poles, 621 laps led, 13 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 9.9 across 34 starts at Kansas.
- Noah Gragson led a race-high 128 laps and swept all three stages in the 2018 event at Kansas. Owner-driver Kyle Busch has collected two wins at Kansas (2014 & 2017) and William Byron earned his first career Camping World Trucks victory there in 2016.
- KBM holds the Camping World Truck Series records for most career wins (84) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). With his victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Track, Martin Truex Jr. became the 16th different driver to win a Truck Series event for KBM. In addition to collecting a series-record seven Owner’s Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers: Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
- With 36 victories, the No. 51 is the winningest number in KBM’s Truck Series fleet.
