Busch Sets Sights On Good String On Potential Races

Kurt Busch isn’t a bad superspeedway racer. He won the 2017 Daytona 500. He’s been close many other times too. But, at the Talladega Superspeedway, he’s 0-for-38. The Daytona win is his lone points paying superspeedway victory.

But, Busch is feeling confident heading into Sunday’s GEICO 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN) at Talladega, NASCAR’s biggest track. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver has six top 10 finishes in his last nine tries there and also eight top 10 finishes in his last 10 starts on the season as well.

Busch though, says he’s going to have to push and block his way to a win on Sunday afternoon. Thats the nature of speedway racing.

“To be able to block all these guys at the end and win it,” Busch said of the key to winning Sunday. “I’ve been in great positions and top-five finishes and coming from behind, but yet, even leading on the last lap and still not able to pull a win, that’s been the toughest.

“You’ve got to be in position to win, which I believe is leading, or second, looking for that slingshot, and that’s been the toughest part is to be able to complete the day to be able to win it.”

Still, if he gets another top 10, Busch says this next stretch of races could be the time that leads him to victory lane.

“I’m looking forward to these next few weeks,” Busch said. “I think we can do really well at Talladega, Kentucky, and Indianapolis. The way that this point of the season is coming together, a lot of these tracks are going to be hot. A lot of them are going to be slick. And that’s what we have to manage without set-ups.”

He has five top seven finishes in his last seven spring starts at Pocono, including a win in 2015. They have a doubleheader there next weekend.

Then, it’s to Indy on July 5 and Kentucky a week later (July 12) where he beat his brother Kyle Busch in a thrilling finish to last years Quaker State 400.

Busch credits his CGR team as doing a great job under all these new circumstances. Nothing is the same and they’re still firing on all cylinders.

“I think the challenge of all this newness has really put a strategy or a re-thinking into how you approach all the races,” Busch said. “I think with a team like Ganassi and myself, we’re doing a great job at finding the balance right away in the races.

“And then with the way the track is rubbering-in and taking the Goodyear tires and changing the handling characteristics, that’s what we’ve got to do a little bit better with to have more positive outcomes at the end.

“But man, the pit crew has got to be ready to go. You have your set-up balance right away. And then the energy and the vibe that isn’t there pre-race, from our race fans, and autograph sessions, the photos, the crowd, that’s something that’s been tough. You have to block that out because we are all missing that. That’s been one of the toughest parts. We miss our race fans.

“For me, with our group at Ganassi and the restrictor plate races that we have run together, our set-up balance has been really good in practice right off the truck. And so there haven’t been those challenges of where are we for balance?

“So, it allows us to go on offense right away. The problem with that is other teams. Are they just as good right off the truck? And we don’t need to be caught-up in a goofy situation early-on.

“And so there’s the competition yellow that will happen, and that’s been how we’ve been evaluating our races. It’s just ease our way towards that, and then go hard after that because it answers a lot of questions that are hard to really answer because of all the tangibles that we’re dealing with.”

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