Brad Keselowski’s 2013 was off to a solid, if unspectacular start; eight races in the Sprint Cup Series had yielded four top fives and seven top 10s, but recent weeks had found him less and less a part of the conversation when it came to victories. Despite entries in every Nationwide Series race to that point, he had only managed two top-5 finishes, while fellow Cup regular Kyle Busch ran away with the majority of the first six races.
By far, the most visible rookie of the year candidate coming into the 2013 Nationwide season was Kyle Larson. Touted as a future star the moment he was introduced to the masses, Larson had quickly progressed up the ranks in auto racing, emerging victorious in his debut K&N Pro East Series season in 2012 as its champion and scoring an average finish of 11.2 in four late-season Camping World Truck Series races, nearly winning one of them. Sure, there was his fairly controversial finish at the Whelen All-American UNOH Battle at the Beach, during which he turned C.E. Falk on the final lap to win the first race of the series.
Kyle Busch may have stolen most of the glory so far in the 2013 Nationwide Series season, but the Nationwide championship hunt is shaping up to be one of the better battles in recent memory — that is, if things stay as close as they are heading into next week’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond.
Sam Hornish Jr. currently leads the points standings, as he has since the first race of the season (save for a one-race tie with Justin Allgaier). But while Hornish once led by as much as 28 points, that lead has evaporated after an incident at Texas that damaged his No. 12 Ford, relegating him to a 34th-place finish and allowing his closest competitors to catch back up.
In a period of five races spanning from April 2008 to April 2010, Kyle Busch was unbeatable in the Nationwide Series at Texas Motor Speedway. In April 2013, the trend potentially began again.
Busch led 91 laps Friday night (April 12) on the way to victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. It was his sixth Nationwide victory at the track, the most of any driver in the series, and his third straight win in 2013.
The Las Vegas native continues to impress in his return to Joe Gibbs Racing for his Nationwide entries in 2013, after competing for a year in his own equipment. Busch now has four wins in six races this season, inciting restlessness for fans who have already grown tired of the Cup regular racing and winning in the Nationwide Series.
The Nationwide Series returns to activity this weekend in Texas after a two-week break, with the full-time teams itching to get back racing. But when it comes to coming out on top Friday night? Don’t be expecting much other than yet another victory by a Cup regular.
That’s been the story of the 2013 Nationwide season so far: five races, four victories by full-time Cup competitors. Kyle Busch, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing in his No. 54, has already scored three wins after going 0-for in the series in 2012. Tony Stewart added yet another Daytona victory at the beginning of the season. Behind him, Sam Hornish, Jr. remains the only Nationwide points contender with a win, taking a popular first-place finish at Las Vegas.
Last week, we looked into the highs and lows of the 2013 Nationwide Series season, five races in. In one small segment, the spotlight turned onto the series’s smaller teams and their progress throughout the season.
As we near the completion of the second straight off-week in the series, let’s take a closer look at the little guys and gals.
The current owner points standings in the series are led by Roger Penske’s No. 12, driven by Sam Hornish Jr., the driver points leader. The following 14 spots, all the way down to 15th, are occupied by the sport’s more successful organizations, from the Nationwide programs of Cup teams like Penske and Roush Fenway Racing to series stalwarts such as Turner Motorsports and JR Motorsports.
Just five races into the NASCAR Nationwide Series season, we’ve already learned some things–some are important, some you probably couldn’t care less about. Do we know the clear front runners for the title yet? Maybe, but there’s also still a lot of season left to count some drivers out this early in the year. Do we have a good feel on what the 2013 season as a whole will be remembered for? Again, too early, but a few common themes are emerging.
Some of these common themes can be construed as positives. Some, on the other hand, leave us scratching our head or banging said head on a table in frustration. Either way, the 2013 Nationwide season is shaping up to be an interesting year, though it’s unclear as to whether or not it will remembered fondly, if at all. We might remember it as the year Kyle Larson became a household name, or a season of redemption for former Cup drivers like Elliott Sadler, Brian Vickers, Regan Smith and Sam Hornish, Jr.
Another Nationwide race, another Kyle Busch victory.
For the third time in five races this season, Busch emerged victorious in the second-tier series, leading 92 laps en route to his 54th career win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. It was a commanding performance from the Las Vegas native, who started from the pole and was substantially challenged by points leader and runner-up Sam Hornish Jr., who added 28 laps led.
His win continues a return to form for Busch, who returned to Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series in 2013 after driving for his own team in 2012. After being unable to secure any sort of win in the series last year, he’s already scored enough victories this year to compensate — and then some.
If you’re looking for a feel-good story four races into the Nationwide Series season, look no further than Mike Harmon.
Harmon, a longtime journeyman contender in multiple NASCAR series and ARCA, published an article with Catchfence last October decrying the change from 43- to 40-car Nationwide fields, writing that he “just [didn’t] think NASCAR has really thought this thing out” and that he was “just about finished with NASCAR.”
Despite his standing as a highly-touted prospect in the NASCAR ranks, Kyle Larson had a tough start to his rookie season in the Nationwide Series, …