Kyle Busch came into 2023 with something to prove. After 15 years with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, Busch entered a new era of his NASCAR Cup Series career driving the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Meanwhile, Auto Club Speedway faced an uncertain future entering 2023, with talks of NASCAR selling a large part of the track property and reconfiguring the facility into a short track. Auto Club Speedway had become a fan-favorite track in recent years, with an older asphalt surface and several different lines for drivers to choose from, which produced great racing and memorable finishes.
Those two storylines intersected at the running of the Pala Casino 400 on February 26, the second race of the 2023 Cup Series season. It proved to be a history-making race for multiple reasons.
In the early going, it looked as though Ross Chastain would have his time to shine in the Sunshine State. Chastain piloted his No. 1 Chevrolet to win both stage one and stage two, leading a race-high 91 of the 200 laps.
Busch, on the other hand, had to fight his way forward. Practice and qualifying both got rained out on an unusually wet and cool weekend for Southern California, relegating Rowdy to a 21st-place spot on the starting grid. Busch drove up as high as sixth under the green flag, but then a yellow-flag speeding penalty on lap 43 forced him to restart his march to the front, only he was even further back than before.
After a choppy stage two that featured three cautions for incidents, Rowdy completed his rally to the front at the start of stage three. Restarting second behind Kevin Harvick, Busch got a strong restart to make the pass for the lead on lap 138.
The race ended with a 55-lap run of green flag racing, including one final pit stop for Busch and Chastain with 34 laps to go. Busch beat Chastain off of pit road and cycled to the lead on lap 180, and he never relinquished it. Busch cruised to the checkered flag with a margin of victory of 2.998 seconds over Chase Elliott.
With the win, Busch set a new Cup Series record with his 19th consecutive season winning at least one race, breaking a tie with Richard Petty for the all-time streak. Any record set by any driver is noteworthy, but it is particularly impressive when it is a record that belonged to The King.
The victory was a record-setter for Busch in more ways than one. It was the 61st win of his Cup Series career, breaking a tie with Harvick for ninth on the…
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