BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kurt Busch is tied with his brother Kyle for most victories among active drivers at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Only one problem: that’s ancient history. Busch earned four of his five Bristol victories during a five-race stretch from spring 2002 through spring 2004. His last win at the .533-mile high-banked short track came in the spring of 2006, his first season with team owner Roger Penske.
Since then, the feast has turned to famine, and Busch knows why. It has everything to do with changes to the track that have opened up the outside lane – and simultaneously opened the path to victory for a much broader group of drivers. Busch ran third at BMS in last year’s spring race, matching his best finish since his most recent victory.
“It’s definitely gotten tougher, with the amount of options there are with the low lane, the high lane, the way that the tires have changed,” Busch said on Friday before opening practice at Bristol. “The races that I won had a nice, consistent pattern. It was to be a bulldog on the bottom lane, move guys out of the way, and let the rough edges drag.
“The new Bristol and where we are now, it’s a little bit more finesse, and you have to find the lane that works the best to be able to get by the guy that’s already in the best lane, and you can’t necessarily just move him because we’re all on that ragged edge. That high lane, we’re all up there running that 15-second lap time, and you’re right on the edge of slipping already, so you’re trying to get to the guy and move him, and yet if you do one little extra step, you’re gonna slide up into the fence.
“It’s such a large consequence when that happens, so it’s just a different way of going about it, and I haven’t quite mastered it like I did before, and, again, third last spring here and just trying to build off of that.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
- NASCAR to debut new short track package at Phoenix - February 28, 2023
- The Wrench Who Stole Racing - December 16, 2022
- Matt DiBenedetto’s excellent run comes to abrupt, violent end - February 17, 2019
