- KBM’s primary chassis for Saturday’s race will be KBM-7
- Kyle Busch has seven career victories across NASCAR’s top three series at New Hampshire
- Busch is making his seventh career start in the Truck Series at New Hampshire
- Including this weekend’s race, there are seven races remaining on the 2011 NCWTS schedule
- KBM’s No. 18 Tundra is seeking its series-leading seventh win of the 2011 season
- The team’s last win came in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta on July, 7 (7/7)
- Speaking of casinos, if winning streaks were playing cards, Busch’s hand at New Hampshire would feature a full house. The 26-year-old driver has left the last two Truck Series races with a pair of wins and on top of that, he has three consecutive wins in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at “The Magic Mile.”
Busch’s victory in July’s New England 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the 1.058-mile oval earned him a pair of milestones. The win was his 100th National Series win and also his 49th career win in the Nationwide Series, which tied him with Mark Martin atop the series all-time wins list. Since the July race, the Las Vegas native has captured two more Nationwide Series victories and now stands alone atop the series record book with 51 career wins.
What does it take to be successful at New Hampshire?
“Loudon is a pretty particular racetrack. It’s tough. It’s not like Phoenix. It’s not like Dover at all. It’s a flat racetrack and it’s really typical of a tough racetrack to pass on. You can’t just have a really good racecar and finish up front. You have to keep track position. You have to keep up all day and make everything work.”
Eric Phillips, Crew Chief of the No. 18 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra:
Are you looking forward to racing at a short track this weekend?
“We’ve struggled a little bit on the mile-and-a-half tracks recently, so we’re excited to be going to New Hampshire this weekend for some short track racing. We are taking the same Tundra, KBM-7, which we won with earlier this season at Phoenix and finished second with at Martinsville. The truck will have a similar setup to what we ran at those two tracks.”
Is New Hampshire similar to either Phoenix or Martinsville?
“New Hampshire and Phoenix are both one-mile flat-tracks, but each has its own unique characteristics. At New Hampshire, the straightaways are very straight and the turns are tight, where at Phoenix the backstretch has a dog-leg and the turns are wider. People would be surprised to know that New Hampshire is even flatter than Martinsville. New Hampshire is similar to Martinsville in the fact that you have to rotate the center very well to be fast, but forward bite isn’t nearly as hard to get a hold of as it is at Martinsville.”
Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota Tundra:
Chassis KBM-7: Kyle Busch led the final 107 laps en route to victory in “007′s” debut at Phoenix International Raceway in February. In the Tundra’s second mission, Busch led 67 laps at Martinsville Speedway in March before settling for a second-place finish. The last time that KBM-7 saw the track, Brian Ickler finished 14th at Iowa Speedway in June.
Notes of Interest:
Kyle Busch @ New Hampshire:
- Has captured back-to-back victories in the NCWTS race — started from the pole and led 156 of the 175 laps en route to victory in last year’s RaceDayRaffleSeries.com 175 (9/18/10) and led 75 laps en route to victory in the 2009 Heluva Good 200 (9/19/09).
- Ranks first among NCWTS drivers over the last six races in Green Flag Passes (204) and Quality Passes (162), and ranks second in Driver Rating (113.2), Laps Led (282) and Fastest Laps Run (130).
- Has recorded three straight victories in the Nationwide Series race, including his historic 100th All-Time Combined National Series win in July (7/16/11)
- Won the 2006 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 Sprint Cup Series race (7/16/06).
Kyle Busch 2011 Camping World Truck Series:
- In 13 starts this season, has won a series-leading five races (Phoenix, Nashville, Dover, Charlotte, Kentucky) and registered a series-leading 10 top-five finishes
- Ranks first among NCWTS drivers in Laps Led (538), Miles Led (607.84), Fastest Laps Run (265), Fastest Early in a Run (3.455 rank), Fastest Late in a Run (3.273 rank) and Green Flag Speed (2.63 rank)
Kyle Busch Camping World Truck Series Career:
- Has won 29.6% of the NCWTS races he has entered and finished first or second in 48%
- 103 All-Time Combined NASCAR National Series wins rank third all-time (Petty 200, Pearson 106)
- Ranks second in NCWTS history in wins (29), fourth in laps led (4,045), tied for sixth in poles (11) and 10th in top fives (58)
- One of 10 drivers in NASCAR history to lead over 20,000 laps among the top three series
- Reached 25th win in NCWTS faster than any driver in the history of NASCAR’s top three series, attaining the milestone in just his 87th career start
- Youngest driver (20 years, 18 days) in NCWTS history to win a race (Quaker Steak & Lube 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on 5/20/05)
- Has at least one NCWTS victory in each of the last seven seasons and multiple victories in each of the last five
- 119.6 career driver rating entering the 2011 season is the highest accumulated by a NCWTS driver since the stat was introduced in 2005
- Average career finish of 7.3 ranks first among active drivers with 10 or more career starts in the NCWTS
Kyle Busch Motorsports and the No. 18 Toyota Tundra:
- Trail KHI’s No. 2 team by 40 points in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) owners’ point standings
- Rank first in the NCWTS in wins (6), and second in Laps Led (633), Fastest Laps (326) and top fives (12)
- Crew chief Eric Phillips ranks first among active crew chiefs with 24 career NCWTS wins and General Manager Rick Ren’s 27 wins as a crew chief are the most in the history of the NCWTS
- In 2010 became the first team since the NCWTS originated in 1995 to win the owners’ championship in its inaugural season
Remaining Schedule Bodes Well for a Strong Stretch Run:
KBM’s No. 18 Tundra team has collected an impressive 14 wins over its 42-race existence. As the NCWTS heads into the final seven races on the 2011 schedule, the team will need to add to that total if it plans on overtaking the KHI No. 2 team in this year’s owners’ point standings. The No. 18 team has visited Victory Lane at five of the seven tracks remaining on this year’s schedule. During the 2010 season, Kyle Busch won Truck Series races at New Hampshire, Talladega, Texas and Homestead, and this season he brought home the trophy at Kentucky. KBM’s owner/driver is scheduled to be behind the wheel of the No. 18 Tundra at the four tracks where he won last year, but the Kentucky race is a stand-alone event and Busch will be in Dover for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race that weekend.
- Kyle Busch Motorsports Press Release
