McManaman: It's Kyle Busch's time to dominate Phoenix like Kevin Harvick
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Move over, Kevin Harvick. You might be the unofficial "Mayor" of Avondale, considering how you’ve dominated the quirky one-mile oval the past few years at Phoenix International Raceway, but it might be time to make way for "President" Busch.
That’s Kyle Busch, NASCAR’s reigning Sprint Cup champion and frontrunner once again early into the 2016 campaign.
"He’s good everywhere," marveled fellow driver Joey Logano. "Is there a place where he’s not fast?"
If there is, Busch hasn’t raced there yet. So far, he’s been tearing it up at every stop on the NASCAR circuit. With three top-five finishes at Daytona, Atlanta and Las Vegas, the driver of the No. 18 Skittles Toyota now turns his sights on Phoenix and Sunday’s Good Sam 500.
He’s owned the weekend already, first having won the pole on Friday for Sunday’s main event with a blistering qualifying time of 138.387 mph, then by dominating Saturday’s race — the Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 — for his third straight Xfinity Series victory.
It was Busch’s ninth career Xfinity Series win in Phoenix.
You can take Harvick and the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet if you want, but beware Busch. Everyone else is.
"He’s really good at this track," driver Brad Keselowski said of Harvick, "but the (Joe) Gibbs cars are really good at this track, too. I feel like we can take ’em, but we need to find a little more speed."
The Gibbs’ Toyota trio of Busch, Carl Edwards and Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin captured the top three spots in Sunday’s starting grid. In the Xfinity Series, it’s been the same three Gibbs drivers claiming the top three qualifying spots at all three races — Busch, Erik Jones and Mexico’s Daniel Suarez.
"To beat Kyle Busch today would be a real good day for me," Suarez said moments before Saturday’s race. "It would be a real good day for anybody."
"He’s the strongest guy I’ve ever had to race against," said Jones, who finished runner-up to Busch on Saturday.
Make no mistake: It’s Busch that makes Joe Gibbs Racing go and it was he — after a freakish accident in Daytona that forced him to miss several races recovering from a broken leg and foot — who brought JGR its first Sprint Cup championship in 10 years.
"Oh, I was the sole reason as to why business picked up," Busch said, drawing laughter at his news conference on Friday. "When I came back, business picked up. It was all me."
It wasn’t always this good, especially for JGR, at PIR.
"We were getting smoked here a few years ago. We were really bad," Busch said. "I think when this place was repaved we obviously really struggled really bad. We’ve known to do a really big push on this place because it’s the second-to-last race in the Chase. We’ve done a good job of being able to do all of that, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing has pushed real hard."
So where, exactly, are Busch and the JGR cars beating the competition?
"Where are we beating them?" Busch said. "I think a combination of everything. I think when you can gain entry speed, you can gain center speed, you can gain exit speed, straightaway speed, it all just kind of comes together. I can’t honestly say whether it’s out-turning them or our-motoring them. I presume it’s just everything."
Edwards, Busch’s JGR teammate and driver of the No. 19 Stanley Toyota, said a team has to have "something special" to dominate a track like Harvick has at PIR, where he’s won five of the past seven Sprint Cup races here.
"That is tough when someone figures a track out that well," Edwards said. "And this place has such a fine edge. Your car has to be perfect all the way around. You have to drive perfectly. ... We’d like to end that."
If anyone does and it’s another driver pulling into Victory Lane come Sunday afternoon besides Harvick, the unofficial "Mayor" of Avondale, the chances are pretty good that it’s going to be Kyle "President" Busch.
Bob McManaman is a columnist for The Arizona Republic, part of the Paste BN Network.
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