Kyle Busch seeking to silence his critics by winning 2nd Cup Series championship

Kyle Busch has heard the talk, the whispers that the Cup Series championship he won in 2015 should come with an asterisk. That because he failed to race the entire schedule due to serious injuries he somehow was an undeserving titlist because NASCAR’s playoff format no longer requires drivers to compete in every event provided certain criteria is met.

Not that Busch really cares about what anyone thinks. The title is his and he isn’t giving it back regardless of what his detractors may say.

“It doesn’t bother me. I don’t care. Ain’t nobody taking that away from me,” Busch said. “They can make it as much of an argument as they want to, but the fact of the matter is NASCAR and all the record books and everybody else will still say 2015 champion Kyle Busch.”

That season Busch missed the first 11 races recovering from a broken right leg and a left foot sustained in a crash in the Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway. He returned sooner than expected, then earned his spot in the 16-driver playoffs on the strength of winning four times in five races.

Busch will go for a second title Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is competing against Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. in the championship final where the best finish among them is crowned series champion.

Truex is the consensus favorite based on his dominance throughout the regular season and playoffs that saw him win a series-best seven times and lead in several prominent statistical categories. But Busch, who also advanced to the final four last season, finishing second, and his No. 18 team consistently challenged Truex and Furniture Row Racing during the regular season more than any other team, and in nine playoff races Busch has led more laps (631) than Truex (529).

“We’ve probably been arguably the best guy, the closest guy that’s kept up with (Truex) all year,” Busch said. “We know all those challenges are out there, and all we can do is focus on what we can do and what we know how to do coming into Homestead and what we’ve been able to accomplish the last three years here.”

Whereas Truex has never won a championship nor a race at Homestead, Busch has accomplished both. But Truex has been better on mile-and-a-half tracks this season, like Homestead, with six of his seven wins coming on such sized speedways. Busch doesn’t own a victory in 2017 on an intermediate track.

In an added wrinkle, Busch and Truex are de facto teammates with their teams closing aligned under the Toyota umbrella. FRR and JGR have an open notebook philosophy and despite the raised stakes that won’t change this weekend.

“It’s already on the calendar that we have our team meeting after practice on Saturday,” Busch said. “We have our discussions, same ol’ stuff, and see that we all can’t do the same things that we’ve done all year long to get us to a championship.”

And if Busch can secure another title on Sunday it would make him just the 16th driver to win a second championship in NASCAR’s premier division. Perhaps then his critics would quiet down.

“There’s a lot of arguments being made that we didn’t deserve the first one, we should never have been there for the first one, but the fact of the matter is we executed and did our job with the rules that were given to us, and we achieved,” Busch said. “This would just kind of put ourselves in another elite group of guys and drivers and teams that have been really, really good over the years that have been able to go win championships.”