Bad News for NASCAR Drivers

By Mark Kozee
Something bad happened at Infineon Raceway last Sunday. The news that came out of that track was bad for just about every racer on the Nextel Cup circuit.
Kyle Busch won. That’s right – Busch, in the #18 Toyota, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, won.
Sounds like old news, as Busch had already won 4 times in ’08. That brings his total to five. No other driver has more that three for the year (Carl Edwards). Well, I said it was bad news, but never said it was new news!
So, since Edwards has 3 and Busch only has 2 more, it might not be obvious why Busch’s win is such bad news for Edwards et al.
It’s bad news because Infineon is a road course. It features more than 2 turns, unlike most other tracks on the cup circuit. Rather than having to drive really fast and make gradual left-hand turns, at Infineon, drivers have to speed up, slow down, and even make right-hand turns. Horrors!
It’s bad new because, this year, Busch had already shown almost total dominance over the rest of the drivers. Road courses, for the reasons listed in the previous paragraph, require a different skills set. They even require the car to be set up differently with respect to camber, tire pressure, etc.
Before last Sunday, veteran drivers like Jeff Gordon (9 roadcourse wins) and Tony Stewart (6) had shown that these courses demand a different car and a different kind of driver.
Enter Kyle Busch. Different track, different setup, same result. In just his fifth start at Infineon in a Nextel Cup event, Busch led for 78 of 122 laps.
Get this: Busch now has the same number of wins at Infineon as Dale Earnhardt. Not Dale Earnhardt Jr., but rather The Intimidator himself. #3’s only win there came in 1993, a year in which he only won 6 races (but managed to win the cup championship despite Rusty Wallace’s 10 wins).
Sophomore racer Juan Pablo Montoya has precisely 1 Nextel Cup win, last year’s race at Infineon. Montoya came up in a circuit called Formula One, where they know a thing or two about turns and braking.
Even two-peater and California boy Jimmie Johnson has zero wins at Infineon. And last year, when he won the cup going away, he only had 4 wins at this point in the season, compared to Busch’s five. That puts Busch on pace to win a staggering 11 races this year, a feat that no one is betting against him to accomplish. Eleven wins would surpass every modern NASCAR season in the past 20 years except Gordon’s 13 wins in ’98.
It’s also bad news because Busch drives a Toyota, the company that makes the hideous Yaris and dorky Prius. Chevrolet better take notice: their 8 manufacturer championships in the last 12 years is in serious jeopardy. Busch and company have 5 – 4 lead over them.
So while winning races is hard but winning races on roadcourses is even harder, Busch and Toyota made it look easy. To Kyle Busch, congratulations on your first roadcourse win but the rest of the circuit, that yellow thing you’re seeing through your windshield is defeat, plain and simple.