After a late crash in the Hollywood Casino 400 last week at Kansas Speedway that landed Busch a 34th place finish and caused him to drop two spots in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, Busch comes to Charlotte Motor Speedway on a mission.
Being a contender year after year, but never having won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, many spectators believe this could be Kyle’s year. Many also believe that Kyle has displayed the maturity and mentality this season to get the job done.
Up until his 34th place finish at Kansas last weekend, Kyle was part of what many considered a “3-man” race for the Championship. His crash toward the end of the race dropped him to 5th spot in the Chase standings, 35 points behind leader Matt Kenseth.
When asked if he considers this a bounce back race, Busch said, “It’s certainly a bounce back week. I feel like we’ve had good runs this year. We’ve been really fast and we’ve shown consistency. We have to show that consistency getting back into the thick of things and being able to run well here. I feel like if we can come out here and win this weekend, that will put us right back in it and give us an opportunity to gain points on people and also show everybody that what happened last week is last week and this is this week. We look forward to the final five that are left.”
Having posted four Sprint Cup Series wins this season, with fourteen top-5 and eighteen top-10 finishes leading 1,200 laps, Busch has yet to find his way to victory lane at Charlotte.
When asked what it would mean to get a Cup win at Charlotte, Busch said, “It would certainly be nice to get a win here whether it’s Nationwide or Cup and especially Cup — we haven’t done that yet here. It’s been a track where we’ve been really good at over the years and I think the most important thing is that if we can get a win here, then that sets the tone that we are back in the thick of things.”
Busch will start the Bank of America 500, under the lights at Charlotte, in ninth position. Commenting on his car after qualifying, Busch stated, “The M&M’s Camry is not too bad — certainly wish for a little bit more. We would have liked to have been quickest, but it seems like the track is similar in qualifying to what it was in practice, but a lot of guys are running the same. We kind of slowed down a little bit.”
The green flag will fall at Charlotte Motor Speedway at 7 p.m. local time for NASCAR Sprint Cup Bank of America 500.
