MADISON, Ill. — Well that was a race.
Kyle Busch slowly turns into a fan favorite. Richard Childress Racing’s a force to reckon with, again, and blown brake rotors.
So without further adieu, let’s dive into the three big stories of the NASCAR Cup Series’ second race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
1. Kyle Busch turning into a fan favorite?
Busch climbed over the metal stairs to walk to the media center, as throngs of fans huddled around him. While security cleared the way, he signed diecasts and posed for pictures.
Even his son, Brexton, signed autographs.
Which begs the question: Is Kyle Busch turning into a fan favorite?
Yes, he always had a hardcore fanbase, “Rowdy Nation,” but the reaction he receives from fans at driver introductions is no longer universal jeering. Now there’s still a noticeable amount of boos, but Sunday, I heard a lot more cheers mixed in.
Could you imagine this kind of response a decade ago? After all, this same driver needed police escorts into and out of tracks, after wrecking Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond Raceway in 2008, and dealt with months upon months of death threats.
Busch wore the metaphorical black hat with pride for years, while he gestured to those who booed him to cry about it.
That guy might now be a fan favorite.
2. RCR is a force, again
Richard Childress came into the deadline room with a bottle of “Victory Cuvée.” It’s his third victory of the season. All of which came with Busch.
“Well, he’s helped us all around,” he said. “Number one, he’s winning races, showing we can win races.”
For almost a decade, Childress lacked wins.
From 2014 to 2021, RCR won a grand total of four Cup Series races. Never had a multi-win driver in that time. That changed with Tyler Reddick in 2022, until he left for greener pastures, like Kevin Harvick in 2014.
Hell, at this point, last season, Reddick was zero in the win column. After 15 races, he’s won three.
“You know, we won a lot with Harvick, won a lot with Earnhardt,” he said. “Our plan is to win a lot with Kyle, and not only be a contender for that championship. If we make the Final Four, we’ll have a shot at winning it for sure.”
From a shadow of its former glory to a championship contender, and with Busch at the head.
The irony of which is that this win fell on the 12th anniversary of Childress punching Busch after a Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway. According to Childress, that’s water under the bridge.
“We talked about it,” he said. “That was one of the first things we talked about. That’s history. We’ve both grown a lot. I know I’ve grown up. I’ve grown older, but I’ve grown up, too. There’s an old song out there, I’m still growing up but I’m getting older.”
3. Blown brake rotors
Four.
That’s how many cars blew brake rotors, Sunday, at Gateway.
So what’s the reason?
Well according to Busch’s crew chief, Randall Burnett, a combination of a lack of track data and the choice of rotors.
“I think people probably came back — I think teams last year came here a little more conservative last year not knowing, and I think we all took data from that and went home and looked,” he said. “We get options on heavy-duty rotors or light-duty rotors, so we can choose that, and we can obviously choose how much cooling we run to them.”
Last season at Gateway, we had a number of cut tires leading to wrecks. Sunday, you can’t blame Goodyear. Rather, it’s a confluence of factors.
“It’s kind of a tough place because the straightaways are so long and you’re off the brakes for such a long time, and then you apply them really hard at the end of the straightaway, so the cycles of getting really cool down the straightaways and then really spiking up the heat, it takes a toll on the rotors,” Burnett said.
Is the answer more practice so we don’t see scary wrecks like we saw with Noah Gragson?
I don’t know.
That’s for NASCAR and various factions to decide.
“I’m sure everybody will take a look at that and try to understand what happened with those cars,” he said.