Kyle Busch continues winning streak | 21Alive

Busch has won two straight races and three overall since missing the first 11 starts of the season because of a broken leg suffered the day before the Daytona 500. At the same time, Allgaier was smoking as he went around the race track. Busch his third win of the season.

The first came on a physically demanding road course that required Busch to put great pressure on his left foot – the foot he uses to brake. All this, and he’s still not 100 percent.

Busch raced himself back onto the lead lap at New Hampshire with 49 laps remaining when he diced his vehicle between leader Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski just before a caution for fluids in Turns 3 and 4. Busch, Keselowski and Harvick led 150 of the first 200 laps, and with only four cautions called, there weren’t many opportunities to condense the field. “I said, ‘Bill, you haven’t got the wrong number, have you?'”. “But that was a calculated risk that I felt like I needed to take at that particular moment”.

“Everything is working in our favor right now”, he said after winning Sunday. “Fortunately for that situation, it was”.

“Ever since that injury, he’s been on it”, Gibbs said. “He’s not points racing”. “Every week is keeps getting better and better”.

During the pre-race drivers’ meeting, Marcus Smith, president and chief operating officer of Speedway Motorsports Inc., parent company of NHMS, observed the track’s 25th anniversary season by recognizing the Bahre family – Bob, Sandy, and son Gary Bahre – all of whom were in attendance. “You can have freaky thunderstorms and stuff that’s already happened to us”. Upon his return, NASCAR ruled that Busch would be eligible for the Chase by winning a race and securing a top-30 points position after Richmond in September. Jimmie Johnson leads all drivers with four victories, but he hasn’t won in Loudon since 2010.

But Stevens believed Busch’s experience driving in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series – Sprint Cup, Xfinity Series, and Truck Series – served him well in his comeback. He returned to racing on May 24 and was granted a waiver by NASCAR that would allow him to challenge for the Sprint Cup championship provided he was ranked among the Top 30 drivers in the series.

Now it looks like a virtual lock.

Busch had a sizable lead on Brad Keselowski as the final of 301 laps began in Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 301 at New Hampshire.

“Chicago caught us a little bit”.

The most intriguing wrinkle for the Chase may not be which championship contenders are in or out after each elimination round. It’s whether he could win the Chase.

John Degenkolb of the Giant-Alpecin team was second, Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff third and Peter Sagan of Tinkoff-Saxo finished fourth on the 114-mile stage from Mende. “We had a really fast vehicle”.

“He’s good”, Keselowski grumbled, “but we’re a good team and I feel like we can beat him”.

That response by Keselowski shouldn’t surprise anyone.

“I thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing for the work they’ve done and the effort that they’ve put in”.

He also added the win needs to followed up by more strong performances as the season winds down and that no one in the Honda camp should be feeling overconfident. “My hope is that we win this thing”, said Edwards. He remains 58 points behind 30th-place driver David Gilliland of Front Row Motorsports.

He apparently came back at the right time.

“This is pretty special”, Busch said.

“It certainly is nice”. Luckily, I got back to the lead lap before the yellow came out. “That’s what has meant the most”.