{"id":4689,"date":"2011-03-31T12:06:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T17:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-03-29T20:07:41","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T01:07:41","slug":"kyle-busch-hoping-finally-%e2%80%98top-dog%e2%80%99-martinsville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/kyle-busch-hoping-finally-%e2%80%98top-dog%e2%80%99-martinsville\/","title":{"rendered":"KYLE BUSCH – Hoping Finally To Be \u2018Top Dog\u2019 at Martinsville"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYLE BUSCH – Hoping Finally To Be \u2018Top Dog\u2019 at Martinsville<\/strong><\/p>\n

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (March 29, 2011) \u2013 One look at Kyle Busch\u2019s burgeoning trophy case reveals an assortment of trophies for his now 91 overall wins among NASCAR\u2019s top three series, which includes 20 Sprint Cup Series wins.<\/p>\n

But even though Busch, driver of the No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), has more trophies than he probably knows what to do with, there\u2019s one glaring omission \u2013 the seven-foot-tall clock that Martinsville (Va.) Speedway president Clay Campbell\u2019s late grandfather and track founder, H. Clay Earles, decided to award his race winners after teaming up with a local clock company almost five decades ago.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Busch, the talented 25-year-old driver, has his sights set on getting that long-awaited maiden victory at Martinsville, the site of Sunday\u2019s Goody\u2019s Fast Pain Relief 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.<\/p>\n

Of the 23 venues that will host Sprint Cup events in 2011, Busch has won at least once in one of NASCAR\u2019s top three divisions \u2013 Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Camping World Truck \u2013 at 20 of those venues. There are only three current Sprint Cup tracks \u2013 Martinsville, Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway \u2013 where Busch has not scored a victory in any of NASCAR\u2019s top three series.<\/p>\n

Despite the lack of a Martinsville grandfather clock, Busch has plenty of reasons for optimism this weekend, considering how he ran on the .526-mile paperclip-shaped oval during the spring and fall races in 2010.<\/p>\n

Last March, in his first full season under the guidance of crew chief Dave Rogers, the Las Vegas native was running in second place when a late-race caution forced a decision by the No. 18 team to pit late in the race, costing precious track position. Then, after making contact with Paul Menard on the ensuing restart, Busch was forced to settle for a 22nd-place finish. Although it was a hugely disappointing way to end the weekend, Busch and Rogers left with the feeling they were capable of winning at Martinsville and backed it up with a solid fourth-place run in the October event. In all, Busch has recorded five top-10s in his 12 Sprint Cup starts there, including four fourth-place efforts. Those fourth-place runs came the spring and fall of 2007, the fall of 2009, and that most recent run last October.<\/p>\n

So, as Busch heads to Martinsville this weekend with the bright colors of Pedigree brand dog food adorning his No. 18 JGR Toyota, he\u2019s focused on finishing just a few notches higher than his last visit, so he can call himself \u201ctop dog\u201d at the legendary racetrack and finally take home that much sought-after grandfather clock to showcase in his already large collection of trophies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KYLE BUSCH – Hoping Finally To Be \u2018Top Dog\u2019 at Martinsville HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (March 29, 2011) \u2013 One look at Kyle Busch\u2019s burgeoning trophy case reveals an assortment of trophies for his now 91 overall wins among NASCAR\u2019s top three series, which includes 20 Sprint Cup Series wins. But even though Busch, driver of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[15775],"class_list":["post-4689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}