Interstate Batteries Racing Team Report

Joe Gibbs Racing Texas Anecdotes:

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  Joe Gibbs Racing has earned one Sprint Cup win at Texas:
  

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  2006 Dickies 500 with Tony Stewart
  

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  Joe Gibbs Racing has earned two Sprint Cup poles at Texas, both of which came via former Joe Gibbs Racing driver Bobby Labonte:
  

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  2004 Samsung/RadioShack 500
  
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  2003 Samsung/RadioShack 500
  

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  Joe Gibbs Racing has earned two NASCAR Nationwide Series wins at Texas:
  

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  2008 O’Reilly 300 with Busch
  
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  2008 O’Reilly Challenge with Busch
  

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  Joe Gibbs Racing also has a Nationwide Series pole at Texas:
  

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  2000 Albertson’s 300 with former Joe Gibbs Racing driver Jason Leffler
  

Chassis No. 236:

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  The Samsung 500 will mark Busch’s 157^th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start and his ninth career Sprint Cup start at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
  

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  Busch notched his best Sprint Cup finish at Texas by finishing third in March 2008. It was his third top-five in eight starts at the track in NASCAR’s top series.
  

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  Busch has led 207 laps in eight Sprint Cup starts at Texas. In addition to Sprint Cup laps led at Texas, Busch has led 570 laps in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and 140 laps in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
  

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  Busch will sport a retro green and bright-red paint scheme on the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota at Texas, the same paint scheme former Joe Gibbs Racing driver Bobby Labonte drove to the team’s first Sprint Cup championship in 2000. The car will also carry a logo on its rear deck lid in honor of Labonte’s induction into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame.
  

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  Busch will attempt to bring home Interstate’s first win at Texas Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Samsung 500. The best finish for Interstate as primary sponsor at Texas is third, coming on four different occasions by two different drivers. Labonte finished third in 1997, 1999 and 2000, while Busch brought home a third-place finish for Interstate in April 2008. Labonte has also captured two pole positions at Texas, coming in 2003 and 2004.
  

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  Double duty: In addition to the Samsung 500 Sprint Cup race, Busch will also compete in Saturday’s Nationwide Series event at Texas in the No. 18 Toyota. He’ll look for his third consecutive Nationwide Series win at the 1.5-mile track after sweeping both events at Texas in 2008.
  

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  Climbing the ladder: With the Sprint Cup win at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway two weeks ago, the talented 23-year-old Busch tied Dick Hutcherson, LeeRoy Yarbrough and Greg Biffle for 46^th on the all-time win list in NASCAR’s top series with 14 wins.
  

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  Repeat after me: Until winning the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks ago, Busch’s 13 previous Sprint Cup victories had all come at different racetracks. His 14^th career Sprint Cup win at Bristol marked the first time he had repeated at the same track, as Busch won at Bristol in March 2007. In addition to Bristol, he has now won Sprint Cup races at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Dover (Del.) International Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, Phoenix International Raceway, Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
  

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  One away: Jeff Gordon holds the record for most Sprint Cup victories before the age of 25, having scored 15 wins prior to hitting the quarter-century mark. Busch, who does not turn 25 until May 2, 2010, is now just one win away from tying Gordon and two wins away from surpassing the four-time champion’s mark.
  

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  Five straight: Busch has won at least one race in each of his first five seasons in Sprint Cup.
  

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  50-percent club: In five of Busch’s 14 Sprint Cup wins, he has led more than 50 percent of the race. He led 378 of 503 laps (75.1 percent) at Bristol two weeks ago. The other four such wins all came in 2008: Atlanta 173 of 325 laps led (53.2 percent); Infineon 78 of 112 (69.6 percent); Chicagoland 165 of 267 (61.7 percent); and Watkins Glen 52 of 90 (57.7 percent).
  

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  Impressive streak: Starting with his win in the Gatorade Duel 150-mile qualifying race at Daytona, Busch won at least one race in each of the first five weeks of the season. His other wins include the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races at Fontana, followed by his victory in the Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas, his Camping World Truck Series win at Atlanta the next weekend and, most recently, his Sprint Cup win at Bristol. Busch is now the first driver in NASCAR history to win in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions in the first five weeks of the season. The five-week winning streak broke his own previous record of three that started the 2008 season. The streak ended on week six of the season, although Busch came close to winning Monday’s rain-delayed Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
  

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  After six of 36 races in the 2009 Sprint Cup season, Busch sits sixth in the championship standings with 800 points, 159 markers behind series leader Jeff Gordon. Busch’s best point finish was in 2007, when he finished fifth.
  

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  Busch notched eight Sprint Cup wins in 2008, tying series-champion Jimmie Johnson for the second-most wins behind Carl Edwards, who had nine.
  

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  Busch notched 21 top-10 and 17 top-five finishes in Sprint Cup competition in 2008.
  

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  Right on “Track:” Of the 30 tracks that will host NASCAR’s top three divisions in 2009, Busch has competed at 28 of them at least once, winning at 20. The two tracks where he has not competed in the top three series are Iowa Speedway in Newton and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. The eight venues where Busch has raced but not scored a victory are Martinsville, Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis., Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., and Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park.
  

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  It takes different types: By winning at the .533-mile short track at Bristol two weeks ago, Busch has now recorded a Sprint Cup win on every type of racetrack since joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008. Last year, Busch added road course wins at Infineon Raceway in June and Watkins Glen in August while tallying Sprint Cup wins at the 1.33-mile egg-shaped oval at Darlington in May; the high-banked, mile oval at Dover in June; the 1.5-mile ovals at Atlanta and Chicagoland in March and July, respectively; and his first- and second-career point-paying restrictor-plate wins at Talladega and Daytona in April and July, respectively.
  

Kyle Busch’s History at Texas Motor Speedway:

× Race length extended due to green-white-checker finish.

† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points.