Kyle Busch celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on April 23, 2023. Photo: James Gilbert/Getty Images
With his victory last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway, Kyle Busch now has 63 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, most among active drivers and ninth all-time.
Busch needs 13 more victories to catch eighth-place Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and 20 more to equal the totals of Jimmie Johnson and Cale Yarborough.
As a driver keenly aware of statistics, Busch has thought about the prospect of advancing up NASCAR’s career win list.
“Yeah, I mean I would have said during the 2015-to-2019 time frame, when I was winning five or six a season, that it was definitely attainable,” said Busch, who came to Sonoma early to induct his brother, Kurt Busch, into the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame on Thursday night. “And then we kind of slowed down the last few years, and I would have probably told you I didn’t know if I’d get there.
“And then this year, we’ve got three and I feel like there’s plenty more. So hopefully we can continue to showcase that at RCR (Richard Childress Racing) and with the No. 8 Chevy to go out there and win some more. I think anything is possible. I think it would be more fair to talk about it when I at least hit 70, which could probably happen by the end of next year—so hopefully it does.”
Martin Truex, Jr. Is Enjoying A New Resource In 2023 — Tyler Reddick
Martin Truex, Jr. has three NASCAR Cup Series victories to his credit at Sonoma Raceway, but the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hasn’t been prominent in discussions of possible winners in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
Admittedly, Truex struggled mightily at Sonoma in the 2022 debut year of the Next Gen car, starting 28th and finishing 26th. Truex was winless last year but his cars have shown much more consistent speed this season, as his triumph at Dover and six top-10 finishes in the last eight races indicate.
When it comes to road courses, Truex has an additional resource this season. No driver has been as successful on road courses as Tyler Reddick, who won at Road America and the Indianapolis Grand Prix Course last year and at Circuit of the Americas in April.
Reddick switched from Chevrolet to Toyota with his move to 23XI Racing this year, and that gives Truex another set of useful information to absorb.
“Yeah, for sure it is,” Truex said. “Especially the simulator stuff and then looking at his data. Everybody was looking at his data at COTA. I guess the benefit for us is that we get to ask him questions and hear about it — ‘Why did you do this, and why did you do that?’
“I think there is a lot of benefit to that these days. Definitely, the simulator time as well. We’ve only raced the one road course this year, so we still have a lot to go and a lot to do here, but for sure it was crazy impressive what he did at COTA.”
Review Of Talladega Crash Brings Safety Enhancements To NASCAR’s Next Gen Car
After a thorough review of a Talladega wreck involving Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece, NASCAR has mandated new safety measures for the Next Gen Cup Series car, effective for the July 9 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The most significant changes involve the addition of a steel plate welded to the right-side door bars to help prevent intrusion by another vehicle and a general “softening” of the front end of the car through modifications to the front bumper strut and front ballast.
The latter changes are designed to help dissipate energy during a wreck and lessen the impact on the driver and, again, to decrease the likelihood that the nose will intrude into another car.
During the Talladega race on April 23, Larson was running near the front of the field when he spun after inadvertent contact, slid across the apron onto the infield grass and shot back up the track across traffic, collecting Preece.
The impact of the nose of Preece’s No. 41 Ford tore part of the body work from the right-side door of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet and bent the door bars. Fortunately, both Larson and Preece were unhurt during the crash.
Asked on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway what he thought of the safety enhancements, Larson replied: “Yeah, I mean not an engineer, so I don’t know. I can’t look at it and really give you an opinion on how well they did with the changes or whatnot.
“But I am very happy that me being in that wreck at Talladega — and seeing how close it got to being really bad — seeing them go straight into action, compile data and make quick moves on improving the safety was something I was happy to see.”
NASCAR Cup Series
Sonoma Raceway – Sonoma, CA
Toyota / Save Mart 350 – June 11, 2023
Sunday’s Starting Line Up
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
1. 11 Denny Hamlin Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota 77.719 92.178
2. 45 Tyler Reddick The Beast Unleashed Toyota 77.812 92.068
3. 34 Michael McDowell Love’s Travel Stops Ford 77.819 92.060
4. 20 Christopher Bell Rheem/Resideo Toyota 77.974 91.877
5. 16 A.J. Allmendinger Gabriel Glas Chevrolet 77.977 91.873
6. 54 Ty Gibbs # Monster Energy Toyota 78.023 91.819
7. 17 Chris Buescher Fifth Third Bank Ford 78.030 91.811
8. 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 78.094 91.736
9. 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 78.339 91.449
10. 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 78.460 91.308
11. 3 Austin Dillon BREZTRI Chevrolet 78.056 91.780
12. 8 Kyle Busch McLaren Custom Grills Chevrolet 78.122 91.703
13. 47 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Kroger/Cottonelle Chevrolet 78.359 91.425
14. 48 Alex Bowman Ally Pride Chevrolet 78.398 91.380
15. 1 Ross Chastain Kubota Chevrolet 78.426 91.347
16. 5 Kyle Larson Valvoline Chevrolet 78.431 91.341
17. 22 Joey Logano Autotrader Ford 78.476 91.289
18. 23 Bubba Wallace DoorDash Toyota 78.506 91.254
19. 7 Corey LaJoie Schluter Systems Chevrolet 78.616 91.126
20. 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 78.650 91.087
21. 4 Kevin Harvick Mobil 1 Ford 78.680 91.052
22. 41 Ryan Preece Autodesk Ford 78.680 91.052
23. 31 Justin Haley Cirkul Chevrolet 78.730 90.995
24. 14 Chase Briscoe Ford Performance Racing School Ford 78.762 90.958
25. 6 Brad Keselowski King’s Hawaiian Ford 78.980 90.707
26. 24 William Byron RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 79.100 90.569
27. 77 Ty Dillon NationsGuard Chevrolet 79.138 90.525
28. 43 Erik Jones Allegiant Chevrolet 79.326 90.311
29. 78 Josh Bilicki(i) Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 79.370 90.261
30. 38 Zane Smith(i) Wellcare Ford 79.498 90.115
31. 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Moen Ford 79.599 90.001
32. 51 Todd Gilliland Serial 1 E-Bikes Ford 79.722 89.862
33. 15 Andy Lally Camping World Ford 79.787 89.789
34. 2 Austin Cindric America’s Tire Ford 79.850 89.718
35. 42 Grant Enfinger(i) Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet 80.223 89.301
36. 21 Harrison Burton DEX Imaging Ford 80.361 89.148
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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