By: Jonathan Panda
The driver of Joe Gibbs NO.18 Toyota Camry Kyle Busch thrilled NASCAR fans by winning the Federate Auto Parts 400 in Richmond. The win accounts for Busch’s 50thcareer win and, seventh win for the season. Kyles 50thcareer victory this past weekend places him in a 11th place tie with NASCAR hall of famers Ned Jarret and, Junior Johnson on the all-time list.
Kyle was asked about how he felt on reaching the 50th career win millstone he said, “It’s a great number to have it’s a great achievement”
In April Kyle raced on this same racetrack starting in 32ndplace, and amazed NASACAR by winning his first in Richmond. This past weekend he started from the 39thposition and, managed to secure a victory. With his second win in Richmond, Kyle advances to the 12thround.
Leading up to race day on Friday, Kyle scrapped his car on the right-side during qualification for Monster Energy series. This incident caused Joe Gibbs racing to make some quick improvements to Kyle’s Toyota. Unfortunately, Kyle was forced to start the race in 39thplace due to the unapproved adjustments. This mishap didn’t stop Kyle from racing at his full potential. During the first stage of the race, Kyle rapidly made his way up in positions placing him in 13thplace at the end of stage 1. In the second stage of the race, Busch passed two drivers placing him in 11th at the end of the stage. During the third stage Busch fled ahead of everyone to win the race. Throughout the race Busch led 92 of the 400 laps.
During post-race inter,views Kyle explained how he was losing a lot of grip on his tires during the final laps of the race.
“as the tires get older and they wear you might as well put flips on you know its terrible your sliding all over the place and trying to figure out what your going to do its flip-flopsflops on baseball dirt”
