NASCAR
Can Kyle Busch Return to Form by Fixing his Talladega Bad Luck?
Even though Kyle Busch is synonymous with success at every track in NASCAR, Talladega Superspeedway is among his worst-performing venues. In a dead heat for the championship points lead, can Kyle Busch rally and reverse his Talladega bad luck?
Busch’s Streaky Talladega Stats
Although Kyle Busch has won a Cup Series race at Talladega, that lone win came over 10 years ago. Since then, Busch has had an upsetting streak of Talladega bad luck. In his last 19 starts since winning at the Alabama superspeedway, Busch has 6 top-10s. 2 of those races were runner-up results. In his career at Talladega, Busch has led just 233 laps. Talladega is second only to Sonoma in a career-low total laps led mark for him.
Busch has raced Talladega in a variety of differing strategies in recent years, but has still wrecked out many times. In the 2014 Talladega Playoff race, Busch was in a crash while conservatively running in the back of the pack. As a result of that crash, he was eliminated from the postseason. On the flip side, Busch has finished top-3 in 2 of the last 3 spring races at Talladega. Busch’s Talladega bad luck is not due to a lack of speed. JGR Toyotas are always fast on the superspeedways. Rather, Kyle has typically been in the wrong place at the wrong time at Talladega.
While Busch has seen success in the spring race at ‘Dega, his fall results in Alabama show room for improvement. Busch has not finished in the top 10 of a Talladega Playoff race in the past 4 years. In the last 2 Playoff races at Talladega, Busch finished 30th in 2016 and 27th last year.
Kyle’s Thoughts Going to ‘Dega
It’s no secret that Busch is not particularly fond of superspeedway racing, especially at Talladega. In the Talladega spring race last year, Busch went from the lead to 3rd on the last lap. After that, Busch said “We get to go to a real race track next week, and we’ll try to win there.” These comments came after Kyle had led a race-high 48 laps that day.
On going to Talladega in the Playoffs, Busch stated “With this race being the second race of the round, you have to try and run up front and hope that you don’t have some bad luck and just bring home a solid finish. We’ll do the best we can this weekend with our M&M’S Camry and see where the points fall for us afterward, then focus on what we need to do at Kansas.”
Going into Talladega, Busch is well ahead of Playoff elimination. He is 2nd in points, only 5 markers behind Kevin Harvick. While many other Playoff contenders must perform well this weekend, Kyle Busch does not need to. At 68 points over the cut line, Busch can afford to throw caution to the wind. But an offensive race is not necessary for the 18. With the lack of desperation for gathering points, the 18 shouldn’t be overly aggressive this weekend. However, if strategy puts them near the lead at the end of the race, watch out.
Photo Credit to Alonzo Wurth via Flickr.
