Kyle Busch: Phoenix a Home Away from Home

There’s just no place like home for Las Vegas native Kyle Busch. But, there is a close second. While Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), relishes each chance to visit his desert hometown, there’s yet another desert destination that ranks as next-best for Busch. Where might that be? Of course, it’s Phoenix International Raceway, site of Sunday’s penultimate stop on the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series campaign, the Advocare 500k. Located just 300 miles to the south and east of his hometown of Las Vegas, the likewise desert setting of Phoenix has been a favorite place to wheel a racecar long before Busch joined the Sprint Cup ranks. And the results have certainly shown, starting with a solid eighth-place finish in his very first outing there in the spring of 2005, followed by just his second career Sprint Cup victory in his very next start there in the fall race that year. Coincidentally enough, his first Sprint Cup win came just 10 races prior ...