Kyle Busch is 5/1 to win 2019 Quaker State 400 at Kentucky

KYLE BUSCH Kentucky Horsepower Kyle Busch has six top-5s and 2 wins at Kentucky. HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (July 9, 2019) – For as long as anyone can remember, the State of Kentucky and Horse Racing have been synonymous – from the state’s many horse farms to the world’s most famous horse-racing track, Churchill Downs in Louisville. Several of the 13 thoroughbreds that have won the Triple Crown came through the state’s various training grounds. Just 65 miles up Interstate 71 from Churchill Downs sits Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, where horsepower of a different kind has been showcased over the years. One of the very best competitors in the relatively short history of Kentucky Speedway happens to be Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota whose record there has proven to be not unlike the state’s most top-notch thoroughbreds. Busch is always optimistic about his chances to win at one of his best tracks statistically, and he’ll look to score a record third Kentucky win during Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at the 1.5-mile oval. The 2015 Cup Series champion has notched multiple victories at Kentucky in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions – Cup, Xfinity, and Truck. Add his 2003 ARCA series win at Kentucky and Busch has been victorious in four racing divisions and has made quite a Kentucky home of his own in the Bluegrass State’s second-most-famous victory lane. While Busch attempts to add yet another win to his Kentucky resume Saturday night, his primary backer M&M’S will be debuting a sweet treat for NASCAR fans – the M&M’S Glampground. The all-inclusive, branded glamping experience includes a turn-key race weekend combined with the colorful fun that only M&M’S can provide. Located in the Kentucky Speedway infield, the experience includes 30 “glamorous camping” tents for fans, along with race tickets, prerace access, and a number of activities and driver appearances, including a visit by Busch. The M&M’S Glampground came about as M&M’S was looking to give new and seasoned racing fans an exclusive experience at NASCAR races. A second M&M’S Glampground will be available for the race weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway next month.  Busch and the No. 18 M&M’S team look forward to their return this weekend to the Kentucky oval, where he won two of the track’s first five races, including its inaugural Cup Series race in 2011 and, most recently, in July 2015. The heavily worn racing surface and quirky Kentucky layout Busch navigated to win both Cup Series races is gone, replaced three seasons ago by a newly repaved surface, along with a slight reconfiguration of turns one and two. Busch managed a fifth-place finish on the new surface in 2016, and he scored his sixth top-10 in seven Kentucky Cup Series races in 2017, along with a fourth-place finish in 2018. In the inaugural Cup Series event at Kentucky in 2011, Busch proved his worth when he led six times for a race-high 125 laps in becoming the historic first winner in NASCAR’s top series in the state. He enters Saturday night’s race with an average Kentucky finish of 5.0 – the series’ top average finish over the first eight races there. He also leads the series in several statistical categories during that time, including his six top-five finishes and seven top-10s. Busch’s winning history at Kentucky started way back at the ripe age of 18, when he dominated the 2003 ARCA race while competing for Hendrick Motorsports. He led a race-high 91 laps en route to the victory. He returned the following year and found victory lane again, this time in his Xfinity Series debut. In all, Busch has three wins, eight top-fives and has led 766 laps in seven Xfinity Series starts at Kentucky. He also won the 2011 and 2014 Truck Series races to give him five top-10 finishes and 310 laps led in six starts there in that division. While Busch has notched four Cup Series wins thus far this season, as has JGR teammate and fellow championship contender Martin Truex Jr., race fans know Busch won’t be satisfied Saturday night unless he brings back home yet another trophy. So as the Cup Series makes a swing through the Bluegrass State Saturday night, Busch’s fans are hoping he can bring home not only his third career Kentucky victory, but his fifth win this season.

KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 M&M'S Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

What is it about Kentucky Speedway that suits you so well? “I don’t know. People ask me that question about a bunch of different racetracks. It’s pretty nice to be able to go to these racetracks and be able to have the opportunity to do well and run well and finish up front and win. You look at Bristol, you look at Richmond, you look at Kentucky, you look at Indy – now, more recently, than years past – and Kansas for that matter, you’ll see we’ve been doing a hell of a lot better and it’s been really good to go to these places and have the consistency that we need to run up front like that. Kentucky, though, when we first started going there, I remember going there in the ARCA days and the Xfinity days, back when the asphalt was old, rough and bumpy. Then they ground it a couple times and it kind of changed a little bit. I kept up with the changes, and then now it’s all repaved and we’re still trying to work in the surface a bit. Looking forward to the racing and visiting fans in the M&M’S Glampground. It’s a really cool deal that M&M’S is doing at Kentucky and at Bristol, so I’m hoping fans get to enjoy their weekend and we get a chance to celebrate with them in victory lane.” What are your favorite moments at Kentucky Speedway? “I have a few favorite moments, actually. The first time racing in the ARCA Series, I won that race a long time ago. And then just a few years ago when I was able to win the race at Kentucky in 2015 during my championship season, just coming back from injury, and that was the first of three races we won in a row. We were able to pass Joey Logano that year late in the race and go on to win – that was a fun one, too. The track that year was really wide. We were running four lanes off the bottom and that never happened before. Going to take some more time to have that many grooves with the asphalt still being being relatively fresh there.” How big of a challenge do you have with turn one and two versus a completely different turns three and four at Kentucky? “I think the biggest thing we saw the last couple of years is that the groove goes from being so wide coming out of turn four and down the front straightaway, it kind of narrows up getting into turn one and the racetrack width narrows up, not to mention the groove is probably only one car wide. Then, on the other end getting into turn three, the track kind of widens out down there and you have plenty of room, but again it narrows down and there’s only one groove. Last year, it seemed, in turns one and two, the rubber laid down well but it was more of a challenge in turns three and four. We’ll see how it is this weekend.” How does it feel to know you’ll always be the inaugural Cup Series winner at Kentucky for the rest of your career? “I think it’s cool. You look at some of the new venues we’ve been to over the years and Jeff Gordon got to win a number of inaugural races, like the Brickyard, Fontana, and Kansas. He was always the guy who was known to figure out places the fastest, but we were able to be the ones to do that at Kentucky. There aren’t many opportunities these days to go to a new venue so, for us, being able to win the first race there was extra special, and we’ve really kept that going there by finishing in the top-10 seven of the eight races there. We’d certainly like to keep our record going there this weekend with our M&M’S Camry.” Is Kentucky a special place for you? “I love Kentucky. It was special there in 2011, when we were able to win the first Cup race there, and it stayed that way during our win there four years ago. I look forward to going back every year. It’s a pretty challenging racetrack. It used to be a place that lends itself to different kinds of setups because it was so rough. Fast lap times at Kentucky come from momentum. The place is so round that there’s not a ton of banking compared to some other 1.5-milers. It’s all about how round the corners are and just being able to maintain corner speed and stay on the gas. It’s a place we get excited about, for sure.”