Best Richmond International Raceway Drivers: No. 1, Kyle Busch

Like many other things related to Kyle Busch, you don’t have to like the fact Busch is No. 1 in our Best Richmond International Raceway Drivers Countdown; you just have to accept it.

Though he has just two victories so far in his RIR career, Busch has been nothing short of incredible at Richmond. Busch called the three-quarter mile track “one of my best places,” but it’s statistically the best track for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, with an average finish of 5.2.

Let’s just repeat that for emphasis: His average finish there is fifth. The only driver better at any track in all of NASCAR (with a minimum of four attempts) is Jimmie Johnson, who has average finishes of 4.8 at Phoenix and 5.1 at Auto Club Speedway.

(Note – The above statistic was brought to you by the old Bill Weber phrase: “We looked it up so you don’t have to!”)

Busch has run 4,810 laps in his Richmond Sprint Cup Series career. And guess how many he’s completed? All of them. He’s run 12 races and had 12 lead-lap finishes.

And of those 12 races, Busch has recorded a top-five finish in 10 of them. That’s 83 percent! (Your fantasy picks for next week should reflect this.)

It took Busch until the sixth Richmond Cup race of his career to get his first finish that wasn’t in the top five. You get the point, right? Busch is a kick-ass driver at Richmond.

If you’re still not convinced about Busch’s dominance for some reason, take a look at his career history in the spring race alone:

2005: Fourth

2006: Fifth

2007: Second

2008: Second

2009: Won

2010: Won

2011: Next week

Forgive us for going on and on about Busch’s stats – and those among you who are Busch haters have probably already gagged by now – but those numbers are kind of amazing.

Here’s the funny thing, though: While Busch acknowledged “Richmond is one of my best racetracks,” he also said it’s “maybe not one of my favorites.” In fact, he ranked it as just his fifth-favorite track.

He’d click “like” on Facebook for Charlotte, Bristol, Chicagoland and Las Vegas before Richmond.

Why? Well, for one thing, Richmond is no picnic for the drivers.

”It”s a challenging racetrack,” he said. “It makes it hard on everything – the brakes, the drivers and the pit crews with the noise and everything.”

For those hoping to see Busch lose next Saturday’s race: Cross your fingers there isn’t a late restart. In both of the last two spring races, Jeff Gordon was leading on the final restart and Busch passed him both times.

Busch may not have Richmond high on his favorites list because it’s a difficult track, but he sure has made it look easy.