Kyle Busch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Kyle Busch earned a record 234 career NASCAR national series wins, establishing a legacy that spanned multiple divisions before his unexpected passing at the age of 41 in May, sports.yahoo.com reported. As part of a series reviewing his career across various tracks, his performances at Las Vegas Motor Speedway highlight a complex history at his home track. Busch secured seven total NASCAR victories at the facility, beginning on the bullring just outside the intermediate speedway. Across national series competition at the venue, he logged 30 NASCAR Cup starts with one win, 2 poles, 12 top fives, 16 top tens, and 332 laps led. In the NASCAR O’Reilly series, he recorded 16 starts with 2 wins, 2 poles, 6 top fives, 7 top tens, and 623 laps led. In the NASCAR Trucks series, he posted 8 starts with 4 wins, 3 poles, 6 top fives, 7 top tens, and 419 laps led.
The 2009 Cup Victory at Las Vegas
Busch secured his only NASCAR Cup Series victory at his home track during the 2009 race after starting from the rear of the field due to an engine change. A caution during the final round of green-flag pit stops vaulted him into fifth place, and he advanced to third for the ensuing restart. He passed Bobby Labonte and Jeff Burton to take the lead with 57 laps to go, leading 30 laps before another caution shuffled him back to fourth. He passed a wounded Jeff Gordon and maneuvered past the Richard Childress Racing cars of Burton and Clint Bowyer to retake control with 17 laps remaining. Surviving two additional restarts in the final 20 laps, he sealed the win. I’ll tell you what, this is pretty cool,
Busch said after the race, according to sports.yahoo.com. I didn’t know exactly what it would mean, but coming to the checkered flag, there was knots in my stomach. This is probably as big as the Daytona 500.
The 2007 O’Reilly Series Finish and 2017 Brawl
In the 2007 NASCAR O’Reilly race, Busch held the lead in the closing laps before Jeff Burton closed the gap on the final line. As Burton squeezed to his outside, Busch doored him down the frontstretch in an effort to slow him, resulting in Busch spinning across the finish line in second and crashing into the wall. Following the race, Busch walked over to Burton to shake his hand, sports.yahoo.com reported. Ten years later, emotions boiled over at the end of the 2017 Cup race following an on-track battle with Joey Logano. Logano slid up into Busch while fighting for a top-five position, triggering a physical altercation between the two drivers on pit road, sports.yahoo.com noted.
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