I make no bones about it: I’m not the biggest NASCAR fan out there. Roundy-round racing bores me if I’m not behind the wheel. But let it be known, I am in constant awe of what every driver does in each race. The reason why 190+ miles per hour lap after lap for hours on end looks so boring is due 100% to the skills that every driver utilizes in the cockpit of these extremely capable machines every time they fire them off and pull out onto a track. If something goes wrong, you will see a driver fight to regain control right up until the moment they figure out that they are merely a passenger. You may be like me and only appreciate the uncensored radio chatter from the drivers and the crews, but each driver has earned their place behind that wheel.

What would make a professional driver nervous? How about driving on a recently re-worked track that is notorious for being one of the roughest in the NASCAR series?, just to make things lively? That was the case for Kyle Busch, who found out that the recent repaving and re-banking of Kentucky Speedway didn’t do him any favors. While out shaking down his Toyota during practice, he found himself coming out of a corner sideways in a full drift. NASCAR cup cars don’t exactly lend themselves to sideways antics, but Busch managed to rein in the Camry before bad things happened…and immediately headed straight to the garage to find out what caused the uncommanded slide. Whatever the fix was, it earned Busch 4th place for the Quaker State 400. Could have been worse…ask the owner of the pickup truck that got burnt to a crisp about a bad evening.