NASCAR milestones adding up for Las Vegas’ Kyle Busch

It already has been a season of milestones for NASCAR driver Kyle Busch of Las Vegas.

And the season is only two weeks old.

At Atlanta last weekend, Busch claimed his 52nd victory in the Truck Series, moving past Ron Hornaday Jr. into first place on the all-time list.

He also drove in his 500th Cup Series race. Starting last after crashing his primary No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in practice, Busch finished sixth in a backup car.

“We had a heck of a day — a heck of a weekend, actually,” the younger of the two NASCAR Busch brothers said. “On the Cup side, we just had no fun. We battled through and took what was probably a 14th- or 16th-place car and ended up sixth with it. So it wasn’t too bad, I guess.”

What about the milestones?

“I think it means that I’m old,” Busch said laughing.

“But seriously, just makes you reflect on all the great things we’ve been able to accomplish over the years and all the people that have helped me get to where I am and win all the races we’ve been able to win.”

In pursuit of 200

The biggest milestone of the 33-year-old veteran’s 2019 campaign probably will come a little further down the road. The victory in the Atlanta truck stop was the 195th of Busch’s career in NASCAR’s three primary touring series.

He’s the career leader in Xfinity and truck wins. And though it’s doubtful anybody will surpass Richard Petty’s 200 career victories in the Cup Series — Busch has 51, 11th on the all-time list and second behind Jimmie Johnson’s 83 among active drivers — with five more wins he would equal The King’s NASCAR total across the board.

Busch will be shooting for his second Cup win on his hometown track in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He also will drive in the Truck and Xfinity Series races.

Before the recent Daytona 500, Busch said he never would compare his victory total to Petty’s.

“Absolutely not, because his number is obviously Cup wins and mine’s not,” said the graduate of Durango High, who was 20 when he won his first Cup Series race in 2005.

There’s no telling how many races Petty might have won had the Xfinity and truck series been around in his day. At the same time, Petty drove in 61 races in 1964, and Busch never has competed in more than 36 per season.

‘It’s just a number’

Petty said race fans make too much of the numbers.

“If you go back and look at some of the older guys, the Red Farmers and all that, they’ve won thousands of races in Saturday night deals. Sunday deals. Different kinds of cars,” Petty said before the Daytona 500. “It’s just a number. Just like me winning 200 is just a number. I just happened to be in the same kind of car.”

Petty won seven NASCAR championships. Busch has won one under today’s capricious playoff system. But the Cup Series is much more competitive than it was during Petty’s day.

Busch turns 34 in May. If he drives for as long as Petty did — the legend had just turned 47 when he retired in 1984 — the Las Vegan might just be getting started.

“I’m at 51 right now, so if I can get another 50 in the next 10 years, that would certainly be nice to go out with 100 Cup wins,” Busch said.

Actually, that would make it 101 Cup victories. But as Richard Petty says, who’s counting?

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.