Kyle Busch looks onward for his fourth win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. (Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
HAMPTON, Ga. – Typically, Kyle Busch picks up the pace and performances once he has more starts at a recently refit racetrack.
Much like his acclimation with Kansas Speedway between 2012 to 2015, the 38-year-old Las Vegas racer’s track record at the reimagined 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway has been improving with each race weekend. After a crash past halfway in the 2022 spring race, Busch tallied a 20th place result in last year’s Quaker State 400 before improving to a 10th place result in this year’s Ambetter Health 400.
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is no stranger to succeeding at superspeedway style racing. After all, he won the most recent Talladega Superspeedway race in late April and he emerged triumphant in the 2008 spring Talladega and summer Daytona races.
Typically a master at intermediate tracks, Busch has showcased his versatility toward the latter part of his storied Cup career. In the midst of a new chapter and leash on life with Richard Childress Racing, the 63-time Cup race winner has extracted the most out of his No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Ahead of Sunday night’s race, Busch was realistic about his chances in terms of his team’s approach.
Busch and his No. 8 team will stay the course to succeed at Atlanta. (Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
“The first time around at Atlanta, we had a good race and we had decent speed,” Busch said in a team press release. “Nobody could really compete with the Fords. They were super-fast.
“Just going back there this time and trying to re-evaluate where we stood the first time around and make some improvement and make some gains on setup stuff and the car being faster will allow us to hold a front spot better.”
Notably, Busch, who starts 22nd, foresees his race playing out similarly to his efforts in the March race with a pivotal intangible.
“The spring race we kind of set up more for handling and I felt like that was a good idea even though it cost us a little bit of speed,” he said. “I think the same thing will be said for this weekend.”
Handling is on the forefront on each driver and crew chief’s mindset with Atlanta. However, as Busch observed, it helps to balance out a car that drives to his liking while pushing the limits on speed.
Unlike last year’s 400-miler, Busch and his No. 8 team will place emphasis on handling and sacrifice a bit of speed. As the future NASCAR Hall of Fame racer observed, the fresh blacktop is starting to show some character.
“Even though it’s under the lights I think it’s still going to be important to have good handling over outright speed,” Busch said. “Any time you get higher track temperatures there’s always going to be a concern for grip and what that grip level is and how fast the grip level is deteriorating from the repave at Atlanta.
“We’ll have to see when we get there in the race because we only get one lap of qualifying before going into the big show.”
