There’s no place like Indy for Kyle Busch

His winless streak has reached 35 races, but at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it’s zero. So there’s no place Kyle Busch would rather be going this weekend than auto racing’s famous Brickyard.

NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 isn’t the big showstopper it used to be, which you can sort of tell from the official name of Sunday’s race. It’s called the Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400, which sort of rolls off the tongue the way Castillian Spanish rolls off the tongue of A.J. Foyt.

But no matter what it is called, and regardless of how many empty sections of seats there are at what once was one of NASCAR’s crown jewel races, Kyle Busch practically owns it.

His last Cup Series win was a year ago at Indy, and the NASCAR champion from Las Vegas also kissed the bricks in 2015. Busch will be gunning for his third straight victory at Indianapolis, something ol’ A.J. himself was never able to do, or big Al Unser or Rick Mears or any of the other legends of the Brickyard.

(Michael Schumacher won four in a row when Formula One competed on the Indianapolis road course. But in one of them, only six cars raced due to safety concerns, and fans threw bottles when Schumacher’s Ferrari crossed the finish line.)

Busch said it’s still a big deal to race and win at Indy, even if a lot of traditional NASCAR fans don’t think so.

“I think the biggest thing about the Brickyard is the prestige, the track’s history and quality of racing – all the historic finishes it has had over the years, whether it has been IndyCar or NASCAR,” he said. “To me, it’s a special place to go to because of its heritage of being Indianapolis. Every guy in NASCAR and, especially, every guy in IndyCar, they want to win there.

“Getting our Skittles Camry to victory lane there three years in a row would be special for a lot of reasons.”

The biggest one is that another win at the holy grail of speed would guarantee Busch a spot in the NASCAR playoffs, though he’s probably going to make it in on points even if all four wheels should fall off. But a victory would put a muffler on his winless streak, which is really no indication of how Busch has driven since last doing a celebratory doughnut.

“It’s going to be interesting,” said Busch, third in points despite not having won in 2017. “I look forward to Indianapolis every year now. We’ve certainly picked up on something the last couple of years that has made us really good there.”

Green, white, checkered

* A guy named Trampas Demers won last week’s Governor’s Cup at Thunder Road Speedbowl in Vermont, while 2015 NASCAR champion Kyle Busch of Las Vegas — who loves returning to his grassroots driving past when his schedule allows — qualified 13th and finished 21st. This is something that Trampas Demers will no doubt remind his pals of from like now until eternity.

* Kurt Busch, Kyle’s older brother and winner of this year’s Daytona 500, posted more photos on his Twitter account this week. One was of the Braves-Cubs game from his seat at SunTrust Park. The other was of his wife, Ashley, lounging in the surf at Turks and Caicos. Busch is a passionate Cubs fan, and Chicago won Monday. But after posting the photo of his wife lounging in the surf, he indicated in 140 characters or fewer that he still would have rather been with the missus.

* Before Wednesday night, when he finished seventh in the NASCAR Truck Series’ annual dirt romp at Tony Stewart’s track in Eldora, Ohio, Noah Gragson had never raced so much as Hot Wheels cars in the dirt. “That race was ridiculous, but also so much fun. It was something that really wasn’t in my wheelhouse,” said the Las Vegas teenager who drives the No. 18 Switch Tundra for fellow Las Vegan Kyle Busch. “I’m used to running short-track asphalt stuff and this was nothing like anything I’d ever done before.”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.