One For The Record Books In NASCAR

Kyle Busch didn’t wait long to start breaking records in the 2009 season of NASCAR.  After winning the San Bernardino County 200 in the Camping World Truck Series he has having a good day as he went into the evening Nationwide race.

Stater Brothers 300 was a hard hitting race that had four cautions flags for 23 laps and three lead changes. Kyle Busch was able take his Toyota to the checkered to win the race and go into the record book as the first driver to win back to back major touring races in the same day. This was the twenty-second win for Busch in the Nationwide Series. Busch’s win shows that he has been the driver to beat since NASCAR switched to the Car of Tomorrow.

Can he pull a hat trick in California for the weekend? Technically he will be starting in tenth place for Sunday’s Auto Club 500 Sprint Cup race, but an engine change for pole sitter Brian Vickers pushes Busch up a notch to the ninth starting spot when the green flag drops. The biggest obstacle for Busch winning three this weekend is three time NASCAR Sprint Cup champ Jimmie Johnson. Johnson has always has a good showing at his home track. With three wins and never finishing lower than third in the last five races at Autoclub Speedway, Johnson is tough to be in his backyard. The Vickers engine change will put Johnson as the pole sitter also.

Other racing notes for the weekend

One NASCAR team had a unexpected landing in Las Vegas after their Bombardier CRJ-200 lost oil in it’s left engine. The plane was used by Michael Waltrip Racing to carry crew members from Statesville, N.C. to California. Racing Bombardier was the manufacturer of the plane that crash in Buffalo, N.Y. just over a week ago. The crew said that they could not tell there was in problems from their perspective.

If you picked up a copy of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit addition you probably laid eyes on Indy Racing League star Danica Patrick in bikini. What you may have noticed was there was just a little Photoshop action at work. The magazine had removed a tattoo from her lower back. SI said it had Patrick’s consent to remove the tattoo. In case you are wondering the tattoo was of the American flag. When I heard of this I thought Bob Parsons might have had Godaddy logo inked on the driver that his company sponsors.

If you are going to watching the Autoclub 500 and have your computer near by to checking stats and like, log onto Twitter and follow #nascar. There will be representatives from some of the upcoming tracks, racing bloggers and fans. I’ll be in and out of the discussion during the race also.