Kyle Busch Attempts to Tie Hall of Famer in Final Truck Start of 2018

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch is just one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory away from tying NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday, Jr. Busch once again will pilot the No. 51 Cessna Toyota Tundra for his team, Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Hornaday earned 51 victories in 360 Truck Series starts spread across 17 years of competition. Busch has scored 50 victories in 144 Truck Series starts to date, spread across 16 years of competition.

This weekend, the Truck Series returns to Pocono Raceway for the Gander Outdoors 150, a race that Busch won in 2015. Hornaday never reached victory lane at the 2.5-mile ‘Tricky Triangle.’ Busch has three starts at the Long Pond, PA track with two top-two finishes, and one DNF after crashing on a late restart last year.

Busch has four Truck Series starts this season, with Pocono his fifth and final start of the year due to NASCAR’s participation guidelines. After a pit-road miscommunication at Atlanta left the 2015 Premier Series Champion 21^st, he has won at Las Vegas and finished runner-up in the two races since.

“If it happens, it happens,” Busch said of the possibility of tying the record. “Everybody asks me about it each week so I am well aware of it. We gave up a chance to win at Atlanta (Motor Speedway) and we did win at Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) and finished second at Kansas (Speedway) and Charlotte (Motor Speedway). The 51 team has a pretty good run going of good finishes and have done a good job.”

KBM in has been stout this season with Noah Gragson winning at Kansas Speedway to lock himself into the Playoffs and Todd Gilliland knocking on the door to earn his own victory. The round-robin of drivers in the No. 46 and No. 51 have also run well as Harrison Burton and Christian Eckes turned heads at Iowa Speedway and Gateway Motorsports Park.

“All of Kyle Busch Motorsports seems to be doing a good job. I’m really pumped and excited for what Rudy (Fugle, No. 18 crew chief) has been able to lead this company to and what the other crew chiefs are doing in his footsteps as well. I still have this weekend to see if I can tie the win record. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do.”