Site last updated: Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Log In

Reset Password
MENU
Butler County's great daily newspaper

Victory Lane an exclusive club at Kentucky Speedway tri-oval

SPARTA, Ky. — Kentucky Speedway’s winners club is seeking new members.

The biggest challenge is a demanding screening process.

Just four NASCAR Cup Series drivers have won the seven 400-mile events at the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch have combined for five wins and were favored here last July, but Martin Truex Jr. got the victory on the way to the series championship. Matt Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion, won here in 2013.

Considering how points leader Busch, second-place Kevin Harvick — who has five consecutive top-10 Kentucky finishes — and Truex have combined for 13 wins this season, the Kentucky Speedway club might stay the same Saturday night.

At the same time, Erik Jones’ victory at Daytona offers hope that a new face might emerge if everything falls right.

“We ran well here last year finishing sixth and you can look back on your notes and say, `OK, this is what we did to get to this point,’ or that point and that makes things quite a bit easier from a driver’s standpoint,” Jones said Friday. “Just having that notebook mentally and physically has been a pretty big advantage.”

Whether it’s enough to overcome the Kentucky dominance of Busch and Keselowski remains to be seen.

Busch, Jones’ teammate with Joe Gibbs Racing, has seven victories across all three NASCAR national series at Kentucky. He won most recently in 2015.

More in Professional

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS