KYLE BUSCH
Indy with a ‘Twist’
HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (Aug. 10, 2021) – Kyle Busch, the two-time Brickyard 400 winner in his 17th season in the NASCAR Cup Series, will be relegated from veteran to rookie status, of sorts, for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Busch won back-to-back Brickyard 400s in 2015 and 2016 among his five top-five finishes and 12 top-10s in 16 career starts on the historic 2.5-mile oval, but when the series makes its return this weekend, competitors will literally experience a twist on tradition as they’ll race on the facility’s 2.534-mile, 13-turn road course for the first time.
Last season, NASCAR Xfinity Series competitors got a head start on their Cup Series counterparts as they raced for the first time on the road course circuit with Chase Briscoe finding victory lane. Briscoe has graduated to fulltime Cup Series competitor and, with expected entries from AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric, will be one of only three racers in the Cup Series field who drove last season’s Xfinity Series race.
Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s MIX Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), has fared well on both of the previous two new road-course events added to this year’s schedule. He led 12 laps with a top-10 finish in May at the Circuit of Americas in Austin, and he finished third July 4 weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
With Busch’s proficiency on the road courses, there’s no doubt he’ll be a contender this weekend in his first shot at the Indianapolis circuit. In the five road-course races contested so far this year, Busch has three top-fives and four top-10s, including the third-place finish at Road America and a fourth-place run last weekend at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Busch will take on the new challenge of the Indianapolis road course with the return of the M&M’S MIX scheme this weekend. M&M’S MIX combines three different flavors of M&M’S in one bag. There are two different types: Classic Mix, which features Milk Chocolate, Peanut and Peanut Butter, and the Peanut MIX, which combines Milk Chocolate Peanut, Dark Chocolate Peanut and White Chocolate Peanut. Race fans can pick up M&M’S MIX at local retailers. The scheme has already gone to victory lane this season at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
So as Busch heads to the Indianapolis road course for the first time, he’ll hope that Indy with a twist will be just a successful as the historic oval as he looks to add to the win column Sunday in his M&M’S MIX Camry.
KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 M&M’S MIX Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:
What does it mean to the prestige of NASCAR Cup Series racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway now that it will be contested on the road course instead of the 2.5-mile oval?
“It’s definitely not what the oval is, certainly not the Indy 500 or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that was always known for being the 2.5-mile oval and all the history that came along with that from the 500 to the Brickyard 400 over the years, as well. To me, it’s going to be the same, but it is what it is. It’s another racetrack where it’s a different racetrack at the same venue. So we have to go out there and figure it out. I saw clips of last year’s Xfinity Series race there and it looked pretty fun. We’ve been spending more time learning more about it and we are going to put the same effort into that race as any other. And we’ll try to bring home another win there, this time on the road course, with our M&M’S MIX Camry, just like we did there a few times on the oval.”
How hard has it been adapting to all the changes this past year?
“Obviously, it’s adapting, but last year there were guys that were good that won a lot of races and they were fast, and this year those guys aren’t winning, and now you’ve got different guys that are kind of winning. It’s just mixed up, it’s weird, it’s different. It doesn’t matter which form or fashion you come to the racetrack in, you always want to be fast, you want to be good, you want to be winning. Honestly, with as easy as everything is with just showing up and racing, it’s the perfect storm for anyone as long as you’re good. When you’re winning, it’s like it doesn’t matter, we’re good.”
Is road-course racing something that comes naturally to you, or is it something you had to work on?
“It’s definitely something you have to work on. With rule changes and tire changes, it’s something you work on every year. There’s always change that you have to work on to be competitive. When I was a kid back in Las Vegas in Legends cars, that’s where I was able to learn about shifting and turning left and turning right. I had the natural instincts for it and won a couple of championships in the winter series we had out there. We actually went out to Sonoma back then and ran the national championship races two years in a row and finished third both times, so I had a little bit of experience on road courses as I came up through the ranks. Certainly the game has changed as far as road course racing this year, with several more races than we used to have, so you have to adapt and adjust. We’ve run well at the majority of the road courses so far this year and I’m hoping we can keep it going this weekend in our M&M’S MIX Camry.”
What is it that you like about racing on the road courses?
“Just enjoy road racing. You used to only have two a year and you kind of treated them like an off weekend – come in, have fun and try to run hard and what not. Now, there’s four, five, six of them or whatever it is so there’s a bit more work involved to it, but still feel as though it’s fun. I’ve always been fast most times on the natural road courses. It’s nice when you have a shot to come up to a track that you know you can get up in the top-three or four and go shoot for a race win.”
Is Indy still Indy without running on the oval track?
“For my opinion and my perception, I don’t view it as Indy, no. Indy is the oval. That’s what makes the allure of Indy and that’s the prestige of the place and being around since 1900. It’s been there forever, it has a lot of history there. Spin and win with (Danny) Sullivan, and (Rick) Mears and A.J. Foyt and the Unser story and all that stuff for years. The Andretti story – all of that is IndyCar, obviously, but then it all started in 1994 with NASCAR going there and Jeff Gordon winning five times and (Dale) Earnhardt winning and Dale Jarrett winning, Bobby Labonte winning. It’s like the who’s who has won the Brickyard 400. I don’t foresee that being the same allure being on the road course. That doesn’t mean we won’t dig hard and go try to win what we have in front of us, though.”
Event Overview:
● Event: Verizon 200 at the Brickyard
● Time/Date: 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 14
● Location: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
● Layout: 2.534-mile, 13-turn road course
● Laps/Miles: 82 laps, 200 miles
● Format: Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 20 laps / Final Stage: 47 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / IMS Radio Network / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Meet the No. 18 M&M’S MIX / Joe Gibbs Racing Team
Primary Team Members:
Driver: Kyle Busch
Hometown: Las Vegas
Crew Chief: Ben Beshore
Hometown: York, Pennsylvania
Car Chief: Nate Bellows
Hometown: Fairfax, Vermont
Spotter: Tony Hirschman
Hometown: Northampton, Pennsylvania
Over-The-Wall Crew Members:
Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Front Tire Changer: Blake Houston
Hometown: Enochville, North Carolina
Jackman: T.J. Ford
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Tire Carrier: Joe Crossen
Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina
Rear Tire Changer: Jeff Cordero
Hometown: Salem, Connecticut
Road Crew Members:
Race Engineer: Seth Chavka
Hometown: Soldotna, Alaska
Truck Driver: Chris Miko
Hometown: Bronx, New York
Truck Driver: Tom McCrimmon
Hometown: Spicer, Minnesota
Mechanic/Tire Specialist: Justin Peiffer
Hometown: Lebanon, Pennsylvania
Mechanic: Scott Eldridge
Hometown: Warsaw, Indiana
Notes of Interest:
● Playoff Points: Busch has racked up 14 important playoff points he can take with him through each round. Busch sits third in the standings with 16 top-five finishes and 22 top-10s with just three regular-season races remaining before the playoffs begin.
● Road-Course Ringer: Busch scored his fourth career Cup Series road-course win in June 2015 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, and he heads to the Indianapolis road course with 14 top-five finishes and 23-top-10s at the new and traditional road-course stops on the schedule with 39 combined starts at Sonoma, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course, the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
● Alone in Ninth: With Busch’s win at Pocono in June, the two-time Cup Series champion scored his 59th career win in NASCAR’s top series as he moved past Kevin Harvick into sole possession of ninth on the all-time win list. Next up on the win list is Dale Earnhardt, the seven-time Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer who won 76 races during his storied career.
● 222 and Counting: Busch will be aiming to add to his record 222 overall wins among NASCAR’s top three series this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. In addition to his 59 Cup Series wins and 102 in the Xfinity Series, Busch has 61 wins in the Camping World Truck Series.
