It took Kyle Busch only two races to beat a record previously held by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard "The King" Petty. With his win at Auto Club Speedway, the 37-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native not only scored his first victory with his new team at Richard Childress Racing, but also secured the record for most consecutive winning seasons in the Cup Series. Busch now has 19 straight seasons with a Cup win, beating Petty's 18-season stretch from 1960 to 1977.
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The two-time Cup champ also racked up his 61st Cup win at the Fontana, California race, breaking his tie with Kevin Harvick on the Cup wins list and firmly planting him in the ninth spot. He will need 15 more wins before his ties with Dale Earnhardt Sr., who is the next up on the all-time wins list.
Kyle Busch moves past Richard Petty to set the #NASCAR Cup Series all-time record. pic.twitter.com/c5SCp7cmis
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 27, 2023
Busch, in stark contrast to his attitude after placing 19th in the season-opening Daytona 500, was extremely gracious and motivated in his post-race interview.
"I think it's just phenomenal," Busch said. I can't thank Richard and Judy (Childress) enough. I can't thank Austin (Dillon) for calling me and getting me talking and getting me this opportunity to be able to come over here to RCR and be a part of Chevrolet and be able to race this Lucas Oil Camaro today, to be able to put it up front like that, man. The guys did a great job. Randall (Burnett, crew chief), everybody that has worked so hard during the off-season. We've done a lot of sim stuff, we've done a lot of testing in general just with trying to get up to speed, systems, and all that sort of stuff. But, man, there's nothing more rewarding than being able to go to Victory Lane. I think it ranks high just because it ranks to the fact of I can do it. I never doubted myself, but sometimes you do. You kind of get down on it, you wonder what's going on and what's happening, and you put yourself in a different situation, and you're able to come out here and reward your guys."
Busch continued, "It's not about me always winning, but it's about the guys. I've been with a lot of great people that have given me a lot of great opportunities in my career, so it's awesome to be able to reward them."
"I'm going to enjoy it for sure, and hopefully there's many more left to go. There were a couple moments where I got loose. I about busted my ass on that last run. So I was like, 'please don't.' But fortunately was able to hang on well enough and tried to find another groove that my car would work better in, so it was always a constant evolution of where you needed to be and just trying to work. That's what I enjoy the most about this racetrack. It's a 2-mile racetrack. It's big, it gets spread out, but man, you can move around, and you can spread out, and you can make your own destiny by trying to find something else that will help work for your race car. It's a sad day for me to see this racetrack be in its last race being a 2-mile configuration. Glad I was able to win the final run here."
