{"id":63869,"date":"2018-04-23T08:54:22","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T08:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=63869"},"modified":"2018-04-23T08:54:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T08:54:22","slug":"kyle-busch-kevin-harvick-will-take-battle-for-nascar-supremacy-to-talladega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/sports\/kyle-busch-kevin-harvick-will-take-battle-for-nascar-supremacy-to-talladega.html","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick will take battle for NASCAR supremacy to Talladega"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick will take battle for NASCAR supremacy to Talladega<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The debate over the best driver in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is unlikely to be settled next Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. That\u2019s because the Alabama track is not only the series\u2019 largest and fastest, it\u2019s also the most unpredictable, putting even the most talented drivers one corner away from calamity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, all eyes will be on Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick as NASCAR\u2019s two most dominant drivers battle for early season supremacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Busch\u2019s victory Saturday night at Richmond Raceway, he matched Harvick with three wins in 2018 \u2013 each coming in a streak of three races. Harvick won the season\u2019s second through fourth races, and Busch now has prevailed at the three most recent events. Austin Dillon, at the season-opening Daytona 500, reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer have the other victories through the first nine races.<\/span><\/p>\n

Busch may be on a dazzling roll, but he knows that is relatively meaningless when matched up to the madness of Talladega, where speed and competence can only take you so far when the field is bunched up in packs with restrictor plates on the cars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPretty cool to win three in a row,\u201d Busch said after celebrating at Richmond. \u201cBut next week we go to Talladega. I think it\u2019s easier to win the Power Ball than win at Talladega. We\u2019ll give it a go anyway, see what we get.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying that Busch and Harvick will be among the favorites next weekend even if Harvick hasn\u2019t won at Talladega since the spring of 2010 and Busch since the spring of 2008. They have simply been that good through the first two months of the season, not only leading the series in wins, but ranking either first or second in laps led, top-five and top-10 finishes and playoff points.<\/span><\/p>\n

Busch led only 32 laps at Richmond and didn\u2019t take his first lead until the final stage. The fact that he drove to victory at all, given that he started 32nd, shows how strong his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team has been this season. Busch set a track record for lowest starting spot to prevail at Richmond, breaking the record that Clint Bowyer set in the spring of 2008 when he started 31st.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvick only paced the field for eight laps, but he too had to overcome adversity when his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team was penalized on the first pit stop, dropping Harvick to the tail end of the longest line on the restart to open Stage 2.<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet when the checkered flag flew Saturday night, both Busch and Harvick, who finished fifth, were up front.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were terrible on the restarts there compared to three or four of those guys,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cBut all of the night taken into consideration, we were way better here than we have been in the past. \u2026 Tonight, we contended, and that is a much better building block than we had coming into the weekend.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But as Dillon proved at Daytona \u2014 the track most similar to Talladega in terms of speed and unpredictability \u2014 a dominating drive can be irrelevant in a pack race. After all, Ryan Blaney led 118 of 200 laps in February and finished seventh. Dillon led one lap \u2013 the final one \u2013 and etched his name in history.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the most recent race at Talladega, last October, Brad Keselowski led only seven laps and passed Ryan Newman on the final lap to take the checkered flag. That race saw just 12 drivers finish on the lead lap and more than half the field suffered crash damage. When Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won at Talladega last May, he led only 14 laps and, like Keselowski, used a last-lap pass to seal the deal as he overtook Busch in overtime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stenhouse and Keselowski as well as Joey Logano, Keselowski\u2019s teammate at Team Penske, should each be factors next weekend. The Ford drivers have combined to win the past six races at Talladega. But don\u2019t be surprised if Busch and Harvick are positioned near the front as the laps dwindle. Neither ran well in the Daytona 500, so that will provide additional motivation in their battle for season supremacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019d rather the No. 4 win every race, so less people win and the more opportunity for somebody like us to get in (to the playoffs) on points if we need to,\u201d Stenhouse said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really bother me that a couple people are winning most of the races, but those two are definitely by far the fastest cars out there right now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nascar\/2018\/04\/22\/kyle-busch-kevin-harvick-2018-nascar-cup-supremacy-richmond-talladega\/540288002\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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