RICHMOND, Va. — Kyle Busch is off to a solid start for Richard Childress Racing with a victory, two top-10 finishes and sitting fourth in points through six races.
Now comes Richmond Raceway, where Busch leads all active drivers with six career victories, to start a stretch of three consecutive short-track events.
Ford driver Joey Logano and Toyota driver Tyler Reddick have won the last two races after Chevrolet drivers won the first four, and Busch said that’s a good thing.
“Parity is always good, right?” he said Saturday. “Last year we had 19 different winners, every manufacturer, obviously. … it’s been a while since it’s been that few of races won by the top winner of the series,” he said.
Chase Elliott led all drivers with five wins last season, one year after Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson won 10 and two years after Kevin Harvick won nine.
NASCAR’s top series has had five different winners already, with William Byron the only two-time winner.
“You turn on NASCAR races, and you don’t really know who’s going to win each week,” Busch said,
That’s in contrast to Formula One, for example, where Max Verstappen has won 16 of the last 25 races, and his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, has won two others.
But Larson, a fellow Chevrolet driver, isn’t as much of a fan of parity.
“I don’t care. No,” he said. “Why would I want them to win? I want Chevys to win every race, Hendrick Chevys at that. No. No.”
Kevin Harvick, second among Fords in the point standings and sixth overall, said the onus is on non-Chevrolet teams to catch up.
“They’ve had their stuff together. They’ve just been faster,” he said.
QUALIFYING RAINED OUT
With rain all morning, qualifying for Sunday’s race was rained out, putting recently reinstalled points leader Alex Bowman on the pole. He will be followed by Busch, Byron, Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick.
“We’ve kind of been hit and miss here a bit, but, hopefully, I can apply some of that long-run knowledge that I have or what I’m looking for in the racecar to help us tomorrow,” he said.
Bowman won the spring race at Richmond in 2021.
