Three drivers. Three backgrounds. Three successful stories.
But it hasn’t always been this way.
When the season kicked-off in Daytona, two of the three drivers that motivate this idea were not even featured in the starting grid.
Now, roughly five months later and with only a few spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup still up for grabs, two of them are certain to contend for the title – and it’s just a matter of time until the third joins them.
At first glance, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. have little in common – if you forget the fact that Kurt and Kyle share the same parents.
The older Busch is the only of the three to have already lifted the cup in his career.
Kyle, on the other hand, is arguably the most skilled driver of the family, as he already has more trips to victory lane than his brother, despite having started his career years after the older Busch. However, the difference between the two lies, to this date, in the patch Kurt wears on his racing overalls – the one that Kyle, despite winning eight races in a single season in the past, has never been able to stitch to his own fire suit, raising questions on whether he will ever be capable of doing so.
And even though Truex Jr. has never been featured in the same list of perennial contenders as the Busch brothers, he is a back-to-back Xfinity Series titlist – much like the other Junior, the one that drives the Hendrick Motorsport No. 88 entry.
In other words: despite never earning gigs at the top-tier teams (he had stints with Chip Ganassi Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing), the guy can drive.
This season, however, the trio is closer than ever, linked by one common point that put them into the spotlight, causing eyes to look away – even if only momentarily – from the usual suspects of Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and even overshadowing Jeff Gordon’s farewell tour – on track, at least.
The comeback factor.
The 2015 season started in Daytona with both the Busch brothers out of the lineup. And even though Kyle’s absence was just temporary, his older brother’s situation was a little bit more delicate.
The controversy that accompanied him throughout his career reached new heights this past offseason, as he was forcedly sidelined amidst domestic violence accusations – on which he was later absolved, but still had to go through a NASCAR rehabilitation program. The question, however, was whether the 2004 champion would prevent his career from the downward spiral it was falling into – including a brief stint with Phoenix Racing and a lackluster 2014, when a Chase appearance quickly shaped into an early exit.
The answer was yes. After missing the first three rounds of the championship, Kurt had no time to lose. Despite being granted Chase eligibility by the office, he still had to qualify. From the moment he floored his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy in Phoenix, he was out to prove he deserved this second chance. His top-five finish at the CampingWorld.com 500 sparked a streak that included a pole at Fontana the very next week (followed by a runner-up finish and bonus points for most laps led) and another pole in Texas, before finally running away with the win in Richmond. This way, Busch assured his place among the 16 drivers who contend for the Sprint Cup in the final 10 rounds of the season, later adding a rain-shortened Michigan triumph to his tally, which has him as one of five drivers with multiple wins this season.
In terms of wins, though, Kurt Busch only trails two drivers. Jimmie Johnson, who has performed doughnuts four times already this season, and his younger brother, winner of the last two races. If that wasn’t quite the accomplishment by itself, remember: the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry missed the first 11 races of the season with a broken leg.
Still, he had 15 races to win at least once and grab a top-30 finish in points. It didn’t take long for him to meet the first requirement.
After four very below par races to start his comeback trail in which he mixed a single top-10 result with two retirements, making the Chase looked a distant point in the horizon. But then, Sonoma happened, and with a precise call to ditch old tires for newer rubber with only a handful laps left – as Chad Knaus had the race-leader Jimmie Johnson out, making him an easy prey – Kyle Busch met victory lane again.
Now only the hard part was still left: a head-to-head battle against your usual backmarkers – guys like David Gilliland and Cole Whitt – for the holy grail that the 30th place in the points standings became.
However, despite having to revert an enormous disadvantage, Busch’s last two weeks – which both ended in victories, in Kentucky and Loudon, proved the 58 points by which he currently trails Gilliland will likely soon be history – much like his season in case he goes on to make a splash in the Chase.
If points qualification for the Chase is a problem for the second winningest driver of the season so far, the same cannot be said for the most surprising pilot of 2015: Martin Truex Jr., who had to work all the way back to the top, after losing the NAPA sponsorship and his ride with Michael Waltrip Racing thanks to one of the biggest controversies (allegedly) of recent NASCAR history.
In his second season at the wheel of the Denver-based No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevy entry, Truex displayed all the potential that earned him two Xfinity Series titles: he posted seven top-10 finishes in a row, and only failed to improve to eight because he got caught in a wreck in Bristol.
The best was yet to come. After a 10th place in Richmond, the New Jersey native un-lucked out thrice in a row, leading most laps in the next three races – Kansas, Charlotte and Dover – but missing out on the win before finally carving in stone his name in the Chase list, widely dominating the Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 in Pocono.
Despite cooling off after a third-place finish in Michigan, the race after his win – Truex Jr. had DNFs in back-to-back races, and is yet to clinch a top-10 result after the Wisconsin round of the championship, Martin comfortably sits in the fifth place of the points table, 25 points ahead of Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, who is currently sixth.
With seven races to go until the Chase, those three Comeback Driver Of The Year nominees – the former champion, the perennial future champion and the would-be surprise champion – still have to prove they can keep toe-to-toe with the series titans.
When all is said and done, only one of them can win the title – or none. Even if they fall short of the Sprint Cup, nobody can say they didn’t deserve to win it all.