Good Sam Emergency Road Service 125 Preview
TRACK:Pocono Raceway (2.5-mile tri-oval)
PRIMARY SPONSOR: CocoaVia™
ASSOCIATE SPONSORS: Toyota of Scranton, Dollar General, Flexco
MANUFACTURER: Toyota
PRIMARY CHASSIS: KBM-4
BACKUP CHASSIS: X-128
MOTORS: Triad Racing Technologies
BROADCAST: Saturday, August 6 – 1:00 p.m. ET SPEED/MRN/Sirius XM NASCAR 90
KBM BRINGING TOP TUNDRA TO THE “TRICKY TRIANGLE”
Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) is bringing its top Tundra to the “Tricky Triangle” for Saturday’s Good Sam Emergency Road Service 125. Chassis KBM-4 has been to victory lane seven times in ten starts, including six times in eight starts with Kyle Busch behind the wheel. Kasey Kahne drove the same chassis to a runner-up finish in last year’s inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) event at the 2.5-mile tri-oval and this year Kahne became first driver other than Busch to win a race for KBM when he drove the Tundra to a victory at Darlington Raceway. Busch is two-for-two driving KBM-4 this season, winning in his last series start at Kentucky Speedway on July 7 as well as the April Nashville race.
CocoaVia™, cocoa extract dietary supplements made by Mars Botanical™, will be the primary sponsor on Busch’s Tundra for Saturday’s 50-lap race. Located just 30 miles from Pocono Raceway, Toyota of Scranton — one of Pennsylvania’s newest Toyota showrooms — returns as an associate sponsor of the No. 18 at their hometown track.
KYLE BUSCH @ POCONO RACEWAY
- Despite qualifying 34th, finished third in the 2011 5-Hour Energy 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (NSCS) (6/12/11)
- Captured the pole, led 32 laps and finished second in the 2010 Gillette Fusion Pro Glide 500 NSCS race (6/6/10)
- Has registered three top-five and four top-10 finishes in 13 career NSCS starts
- In lone ARCA Racing Series start, captured the pole for the 2003 Pennsylvania 200 and led 33 laps before an incident on lap 56 relegated him to a 25th-place finish (7/20/03)
KYLE BUSCH 2011 NCWTS
- Ranks first in the NCWTS in wins (6), driver rating (128.4), average finish (2.3), laps led (507), miles led (557.2), fastest laps run (222), fastest early in run (3.37), fastest late in run (3.63), green flag speed (2.75) and is tied with Ron Hornaday Jr. for most top 5s (7)
Has won five races (Phoenix, Nashville, Dover, Charlotte, Kentucky) in eight starts, including four of the last five he has entered, and registered eight top-five finishes.
- Has recorded top-10 finishes in each of the last 20 NCWTS races he has entered, collecting 12 wins, four runner-up finishes and has an average finish of 2.05 over that span
KYLE BUSCH MOTORSPORTS NO. 18 TOYOTA TUNDRA
- Leads the 2011 NCWTS Owner Point Standings by 33 points over KHI’s No. 2
- Aiming to become the first team to win back-to-back owners’ titles since 2003 (No. 16 Steve Coulter 2002 and 2003)
- Ranks first in the NCWTS in wins (6), top 5s (9), laps led (541) and fastest laps run (283)
- Kasey Kahne started second, led 17 laps, and finished second in the 2010 Pocono Mountains 125 at Pocono Raceway
- 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
KYLE BUSCH NCWTS CAREER
- Has won 31.1% of the NCWTS races he has entered and finished first or second in 49.5%
- 100 All-Time Combined NASCAR National Series rank third all-time (Petty 200, Pearson 106)
- Ranks second in NCWTS history with 29 wins (Hornaday Jr. 48)
- Ranks eighth in NCWTS history in poles (11), 11th in top 5s (55) and 15th in top 10s (73)
- 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 divisions, 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 7.0 ranks first among active drivers with 10 or more career starts
KYLE BUSCH ON MAKING HIS FIRST TRUCK SERIES START AT POCONO
“Mars has been a big supporter of mine — not only on the Cup side at Joe Gibbs Racing, but here on our trucks at KBM as well — and this weekend I’m excited to have one of their newest brands, CocoaVia, on my No. 18 Tundra. I didn’t run the truck race at Pocono last year, but I did participate in a Goodyear tire test and learned quite a bit. Kasey (Kahne) did a real nice job for us in the race last year and just missed out on the win. We’re bringing the same truck that he drove last year, so I expect that Eric and all the guys at KBM will provide me with a fast CocoaVia Tundra right off the hauler. Being fast from the time you unload is especially important this weekend because we only have one practice session. You don’t really have time to make any major adjustments during practice and with the race only being 50 laps you’re probably only going to make one pit stop — so you’ve only got one shot to make your truck better for the end of the race. I’ve had a lot better results in the M&M’s Camry the last couple years at Pocono and I’m really looking forward to making my first start there in the trucks Saturday.”
KYLE BUSCH BREAKS DOWN THE “TRICKY TRIANGLE”
“The hardest part of the track, for me, is probably turn one, and then turn two is the second-hardest, and then turn three is the third-hardest. Turn three, last year in the Cup cars, because of the patch they laid down, we couldn’t go down low and get underneath somebody and get a run on them because, when you come off the corner, you’re 8 to 10 mph slower than the guy on your outside, and they’re just going to blow right by you going down the straightaway.”
ERIC PHILLIPS ON HOW EXPERIENCE CAN HELP OVERCOME A LACK OF NOTES
“Last year was the first time the trucks raced at Pocono, so we don’t have a binder full of notes to work off like we do at most tracks. Between Rick (Ren) and I, we have a lot of experience in this series and I think that helps in a situation like this weekend because if you need to change something, you need to make an educated decision and get the truck dialed in rather quickly. Having an experienced driver like Kyle, who has ran a lot of races at Pocono in the Cup cars, providing qualify feedback helps as well. We participated in the tire test last year with Kyle driving and I think we learned a lot from the tire test as a team and it seems like Kyle learned something as well because he’s had better results in his Cup car since that test.”
- Kyle Busch Motorsports Press Release
