Kyle Busch wins Nationwide at Kansas, looks ahead to Sunday’s Chase race

By Oct 4, 2014, 6:39 PM EDT
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Considering how badly Kyle Busch has fared in the Sprint Cup Series at Kansas Speedway, he’ll certainly take any momentum he can get going into tomorrow’s Contender Round opener at the 1.5-mile oval.

Today, he got some.

Busch passed fellow Cup regular Kevin Harvick for the lead with 20 laps to go and went on to pick up his sixth Nationwide Series win of 2014 and his second in as many weeks.

So what can “Rowdy” take away from today’s victory and perhaps apply toward what he hopes will be a solid day tomorrow?

“You learn enough here,” Busch said to ESPN. “There was a bit of some moving around today – trying to run bottom, trying to run top, seeing where the different lines were in traffic and stuff like that.

“I feel like our Cup car is okay, and if we can get out of here with a Top-10 day tomorrow, that’d be pretty good.”

Ryan Blaney finished third for Team Penske, while Richard Childress Racing teammates Paul Menard and Ty Dillon finished fourth and fifth respectively.

In addition to Busch’s triumph, today may also prove notable for serving as the effective conclusion to the 2014 NNS title race.

Chase Elliott finished a perhaps sub-par 10th, but extended his championship lead over JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith by an additional 12 points to 38 with four races remaining.

Smith was already having a bad Saturday after he spun and crashed in qualifying. Forced to race a backup car, Smith was making enough progress to minimize points damage – until he suffered a broken sway bar arm in the second half of the race.

After an extended repair on pit road, Smith eventually finished eight laps down in 22nd place.

The first half was marred by seven cautions within the first 90 laps, the last of those involving Sprint Cup rookie star Kyle Larson spinning off Turn 2 and then collecting early leader Chris Buescher.

Elliott Sadler held the lead at the halfway point, but at Lap 125, Busch took the lead from him with an inside pass. Green-flag stops then ensued just before Lap 140, with Busch himself giving up the lead for service at Lap 139.

The cycle had yet to be completed when Dakoda Armstrong spun off Turn 2 at Lap 144. Harvick was leading at this point and because he had not yet pitted under green, he became the only driver on the lead lap.

Harvick pitted under the caution and Busch, being the first driver one lap down, got the free pass while the others had to take the wave around. As that was being sorted out, Smith went to the pits for repairs after his car sustained the aforementioned broken sway bar arm.

The green returned with 48 laps to go, but one lap later, Elliott found himself caught in lapped traffic and after taking contact from Mike Bliss on the inside, he ended up clipping Jamie Dick on the outside and sent him into the wall.

Elliott, bearing some left rear damage, was among several leaders that chose to pit during the yellow. Back up front, Harvick held the point off of the restart with 40 to go.

But with less than 25 laps remaining, Busch pulled to within a couple of car lengths of Harvick. Then, with 20 to go, Busch went inside of Harvick off Turn 4 and cleared him coming out of the tri-oval.

With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”