Kyle Busch earns 7th pole of NNS season, 43rd of career

By Nov 8, 2014, 1:58 PM EST
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Befitting of a guy who grew up in nearby Las Vegas, Kyle Busch rolled sevens in Saturday morning’s qualifying for the DAV 200 – Honoring America’s Veterans NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Busch earned his seventh career pole at PIR and his seventh NNS pole of the season with a field-best speed of 133.963 mph. It was also Busch’s 43rd pole of his NNS career.

“(Crew chief) Adam Stevens and these guys did a great job again and brought me a great piece,” said Busch, who has won the last three NNS races at PIR.

“There’s not much of a secret, per se,” Busch said. “Good cars are just good cars. We have something here that’s figured out.

“It’s not out of the box ordinary. It’s just good to have a dominant car like that, or to have a good car like that when you go to places, and it just seems Phoenix is one of those.”

Busch is also going for his eighth win of the season, having won the NNS race last week at Texas Motor Speedway.

Brad Keselowski qualified second (133.924 mph), followed by Friday night’s Truck series winner Erik Jones (133.670), Elliott Sadler (133.284), Alex Bowman (133.200), Regan Smith (133.077), Ty Dillon (132.993), Brendan Gaughan (132.964), Brian Scott (132.690) and NNS series leader Chase Elliott was 10th-fastest at 132.592 mph.

Former Drive For Diversity participant Mackena Bell made the field for her first career NNS race. She’ll start 39th.

Only one driver failed to qualify, that being Ryan Ellis.

Here’s the starting grid for this afternoon’s race:

Row 1: Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski

Row 2: Erik Jones, Elliott Sadler

Row 3: Alex Bowman, Regan Smith

Row 4: Ty Dillon, Brendan Gaughan

Row 5: Brian Scott, Chase Elliott

Row 6: Kyle Larson, Trevor Bayne

Row 7: Chris Buescher, Dylan Kwasniewski

Row 8: Ryan Reed, James Buescher

Row 9: John Wes Townley, Landon Cassill

Row 10: Brennan Newberry, Mike Bliss

Row 11: Ryan Sieg, Jeffrey Earnhardt

Row 12: Kelly Admiraal, Jeremy Clements

Row 13: Dakoda Armstrong, Blake Koch

Row 14: Jamie Dick, Matt DiBenedetto

Row 15: Jeff Green, Tanner Berryhill

Row 16: TJ Bell, Joey Gase

Row 17: JJ Yeley, Mike Wallace

Row 18: Eric McClure, Chad Boat

Row 19: Morgan Shepherd, Carl Long

Row 20: Mackena Bell, Derrike Cope

DNQ: Ryan Ellis

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Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”