Las Vegas native Kyle Busch may be racing across the country this weekend, but he'll have one eye on Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
The 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion has a vested interest in the Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, as a trio of Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers will do battle at the 1.5-mile oval in his hometown. Busch's fellow Las Vegan Noah Gragson, NCWTS Playoffs driver Christopher Bell and Myatt Snider will do their best to bring KBM a win in the 146-lap race, which will be the 21st running of the event at LVMS.
Busch is excited to see how his team performs in Las Vegas.
"All in all, it'll be a big weekend for Kyle Busch Motorsports, and I'll be on the edge of my seat watching from afar in Dover," Busch said. "I think for all of our teams at Kyle Busch Motorsports, with everyone knowing that I'm from Las Vegas and that this race is a big deal to me, it gives us a second home track (along with Charlotte).
"This year, we've got Las Vegas native Noah Gragson racing there for the first time in the Truck Series, and he has a Las Vegas company in Switch as his primary sponsor, so it'll be a big race for our No. 18 team. For our other two teams, it's a playoff race with Christopher Bell and the No. 4 team going for the driver's championship and the No. 51 team having earned a spot in the owner's championship - so being a part of that will be a good experience for Myatt Snider."
Bell is coming off a playoff win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday that made him the first driver qualified for the Round of 6, and Busch said that Saturday's Las Vegas 350 now can be a litmus test of sorts for himself and the KBM team.
"Their race in Vegas is the test session for the spring Vegas race that I'm racing in, so they better get it right," Busch said. "We've got to figure out Las Vegas and get better there for what's going to happen in the future. It's good that these guys have (already) punched their ticket. It gives them the opportunity to go out there and learn some things and develop some things that can really help us for the future.
"We don't have many opportunities to test, so the more we can use these race weekends when Christopher or whoever has a win, that will help."
Bell said he can now change his approach to the Las Vegas 350 after the New Hampshire playoff win.
"Now, we can be more aggressive in Vegas and Talladega and try to win the race instead of how I did it last year when I had to take my fifth through eighth-place finishes and move on," Bell said.
Kyle Busch Motorsports has had success at LVMS in the past.
"We were fortunate enough to bring home a win there with Erik Jones a few years ago in that exciting race where it was a KBM one-two finish with Erik and Darrell Wallace Jr.," Busch said of Jones' 2014 NCWTS victory.
The green flag for the NCWTS race - the second race in the truck series' playoffs - drops at 5 p.m., and the event will be televised live on FOX Sports 1. The track's wildly popular Neon Garage opens at 8:30 a.m. and is free to all attendees, and practice sessions run from 8:30-9:25 a.m. and 10-10:55 a.m.
In addition, the driver autograph session will take place from 1-2 p.m. in the Fan Engagement Area, and qualifying begins at 3:10 p.m.
For race tickets, call 1-800-644-4444 or log on to www.LVMS.com.
