Kyle Busch slated for NASCAR double duty this weekend

By RON KANTOWSKI LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

8 years ago

NASCAR champion Kyle Busch of Las Vegas is interviewed after the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority joined with Las Vegas Motor Speedway officials to announce a second NASCAR race in Las Vegas during a news conference at Cashman Center on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, in Las Vegas. (Mark Damon/Las Vegas News Bureau)

Race car driver and 2015 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch speaks with media at Cashman Center on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, in Las Vegas. It was announced that Las Vegas Motor Speedway will host a second NSCAR race in the fall starting in 2018. (Bridget Bennett/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bridgetkbennett

Kyle Busch of Las Vegas is one of eight drivers who will compete in the Boyd Gaming 300 Xfinity Series and Kobalt 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend.

The speedway people call this doubling down.

Others call it double duty.

A baseball fan might look at it this way: Paying general admission to a Triple-A game, only to find a bunch of major league stars had been sent down on rehab assignments.

Busch is the defending champion of the Boyd Gaming 300 and won last week’s Xfinity race in Atlanta. Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, brothers Austin and Ty Dillon, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola are the other gentlemen who will start their engines twice.

Tickets to Saturday’s Xfinity Series race cost a little more than tickets to a Las Vegas 51s game. But kids 12-under accompanied by a ticketed adult get in free this year.

Tentative entries for the Boyd Gaming 300 and Kobalt 400 can be found here and here.

Wow! Check out @KyleBusch's NOS Rowdy paint scheme for Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/SVng7DFZag

— NASCAR News (@NASCAR_2017) March 9, 2017

KURT BUSCH’S FAME

On Thursday, local NASCAR and reigning Daytona 500 champ Kurt Busch had his number — or at least a facsimile of the hood of his 2004 championship-winning racecar — raised to the rafters at Durango High, the Las Vegas school from which he graduated.

It just might be the tip of the tachometer of accolades the 38-year-old veteran will acquire before his last laps are run.

“After adding a Daytona 500 trophy to his championship body of work, Kurt Busch’s name will be among those considered at some point for the NASCAR Hall of Fame,” NASCAR.com’s Holly Cain wrote.

The 2018 nominees — Davey Allison, Red Farmer, Bobby Labonte and car owners Roger Penske and Joe Gibbs — were announced Wednesday.

NO LIGHTS FOR FALL

Some in the local media were spinning wheels with local NASCAR racers in the back of the room Wednesday after it was announced Las Vegas Motor Speedway would be receiving a second Cup Series race that will be up against the NFL in late September starting in 2018.

Wouldn’t it make sense to run on Saturday night, Brendan Gaughan was asked.

It might make a little sense, Gaughan said. But he said it will never happen, because local casino owners don’t want visiting race fans out at the track after the sun goes down. They want them in the casinos spending money.

Gaughan should know where the casino owners stand. His father, Michael, owns the South Point, which sponsors his Xfinity Series car.

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