Busch finished 12th in the season-opening Daytona 500 before coming just 0.007s shy of victory at Atlanta. Unfortunately for Busch, that narrow margin was still only good enough for third place.
Between those two results and the stage points he scored during the first two races, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion now sits atop the points standings. There's only one point between Busch and the next two drivers [William Byron and Austin Cindric], but it's still the lead, something Busch "definitely" believes is important to have early in the year.
"I’ve always been a strong proponent of getting a good start to the season; having a strong start, whether it’s winning races or just coming out with top-10 finishes to kind of build your foundation to your season," said Busch on Saturday.
"I feel like the first two weeks – if I would have restarted one lane different on the last restart for Daytona, we would have finished fourth. So we could be talking about a fourth and a third, which would be really good. And we’ve actually been collecting a few stage points here so far this year, which has been good."
However, Vegas will be the first traditional intermediate track on the schedule this year. It's also Busch's home track. Ford and Toyota will learn just how much of an advantage (if any) they've gained with their new bodies while Chevrolet aims to stay ahead of the competition.
Unfortunately for Busch, it's been a difficult start so far. He qualified 21st, just one row behind his Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon. He wasn't too far off in practice, but there's still work to be done if he wants to contend for the win on Sunday.
"A little bit of a struggle today, a little behind on the eight ball and not where we want to be with our Camaro. Hopefully we can fine-tune it in for tomorrow. There’s really not much we can do with impound and going into the race, but we’ll go to work."
Las Vegas becoming the new windy city
Another challenge this weekend has been the high winds, and Busch gave his thoughts on how that may affect things on and off the track.
“Yeah, I mean the wind isn’t terrible for us on the race track," he said. "It’s more uncomfortable or wears on you a little bit when you’re in the grandstands probably as a race fan. You know where the wind is blowing, so you kind of have to drive a little bit differently as you would on how you attack the corners, whether you’re in a head wind or a tail wind. And then also, just being around traffic – when you want to make your moves and what straightaway you feel like you’re best prone to be able to make that pass on somebody with head wind or tail wind."
Busch has 63 Cup wins, but he hasn't won at his home track since 2009. Even still, he has five top-fives in the last six races at LVMS.
