Kyle Busch Returning to Super Late Model for Winter Showdown
The SRL Winter Showdown is in just its third year of existence, but the event has quickly grown into one of the biggest Super Late Model races of the year in North America. The payout is a whopping $30,000 to the winner, and as a result, the entry list has become a whos who in asphalt Super Late Model racing. The latest entrant is non-other than 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.
Kyle Busch will be piloting the No. 51 Toyota Camry sponsored by JBL in his first trip to Kern County Raceway Park for the Saturday, February 11, 2017, Winter Showdown.
“They have a pretty strong field lined up again this year with Bubba Pollard coming back and trying to make it three-in-a-row. And then you add in some of the West Coast guys like Derek Thorn, David Mayhew, and Noah Gragson, who will be running one of my trucks full-time this season, and it has a lot of great drivers,” Busch told Speed51.com. “One of the things that is going to be really cool is that this will be the first time that Erik Jones and I get to race against each other in the supers since he beat me in the Snowball Derby back in 2013.”
Even after moving up to the highest level of NASCAR racing, Busch has continued to support Super Late Model racing by racing whenever he can. Busch has raced and won at the Snowball Derby, CRA SpeedFest, the Oxford 250, the Winchester 400, the Battle at Berlin and plenty of other big races.
Busch also supports Super Late Model racing even when he can’t make the race. His Kyle Busch Motorsports team houses a two-car Super Late Model team that saw Christopher Bell, William Byron, and Todd Gilliland run a variety of races in 2016. Gilliland piloted Busch’s car at the SRL Winter Showdown one year ago, however, an early crash ended his race just eight laps in.
“Since we started the KBM Super Late Model program we’ve made it a point each year to try and have a presence at as many of the marquee events around the country as we can,” added Busch. “Everybody at Kern County has done a really nice job with the Winter Showdown the first couple of years, and with the race moving up a few weeks earlier this year, I was able to fit it into my schedule before the NASCAR season gets started.”
Busch said he has only one goal for his first trip to Kern County and that’s to win.
“We’ve already got a pretty cool collection of trophies from most of the marquee Super Late Model events around the country in the display cases at KBM. Hopefully, we can bring home another new one in few weeks.”
A limited amount of “Rowdy Roundup” with Kyle Busch ticket packages are available for fans to purchase. This special ticket will allow fans to attend a meet and greet with Busch on Saturday afternoon before the race, get his autograph and have their picture taken with him. If you are interested contact Kern County Raceway at 661-835-1264.
If you cannot make it to the track, fans can still watch Kyle Busch battle Super Late Model racing’s best at the Winter Showdown by purchasing the Speed51.com live video stream.
The 2017 edition of the Winter Showdown is being held at the state-of-the-art, Kern County Raceway in Bakersfield, California on February 10th and 11th 2017.
Winter Showdown event tickets are available at www.KernRaceway.com
Sources: Kyle Busch Motorsports