Momentum is everything, especially in motorsports.

Everything is going right for Kyle Busch. He's living in victory lane having visited there four times within a span of six weeks. Busch took a step closer to a fifth visit on Friday by winning the pole for Sunday's Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway.

"It certainly is nice," Busch said. "I don't know how to explain it; it's certainly nice to feel. I certainly have been through some down times, that's for sure. I just remember last summer or the summer before, I hit a stretch where I couldn't do anything right. It was really bumming me out. This year the tides are 180 degrees different so obviously being able to do everything right means a heck of a lot more in this business.

The hunt for suspense continues in NASCAR.

Wednesday afternoon, 13 Sprint Cup teams participated in an open test at steamy Bristol Motor Speedway in preparation for the Aug. 22 IRWIN Tools Night Race at BMS.

While NASCAR officials have no rule alterations planned for the iconic Saturday night showdown in the hills of Northeast Tennessee, fans have become increasingly frustrated over the lack of passing in Sprint Cup events.

The No. 98 team has been assessed a P3 level penalty for having an unattached weight leave the car during practice on July 24 (Sections 12:1; 12.5.3.3.1; 20.3.5).

Buddy Baker has a special wish—call it a plea—as he faces the end of his life.
   
“Please, please, please!” Buddy said to Humpy Wheeler and Waddell Wilson as I joined them Saturday to visit the cancer-stricken driving star of NASCAR’s golden era, the 1970s and ‘80s.  

“You two get the other great minds of racing like Richard Petty, Rick Hendrick and Junior Johnson together with NASCAR and figure out a way to get the fans back to races.  Attendance is pitiful.  Save the sport that so many of us worked so hard to build.”

NASCAR fans from Juneau to Key West, Hilo to Orchard Beach, howled when they discovered that the Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis wasn't on their local NBC affiliate. The Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard was on the NBC Sports channel, which many fans didn't have as part of their basic cable packages and some probably had and didn't know it.

This is nothing new where rich folks hoping to get richer are concerned. The idea isn't making it easier for you to see your favorite sport. It's seeing how much you'll pay to do so. ESPN played this game years ago when they added an ESPN2, an ESPN News, an ESPU, a Southeastern Conference channel, and even one dedicated to the Texas Longhorns.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is known for making race car drivers into heroes and then taking those heroes and turning them into legends.

Entering the race, Kyle Busch's streak of three wins in four weeks was amazing by all accounts. But when he took the checkered flag for Sunday's Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at The Brickyard, the streak became nothing short of legendary.

Busch's No. 18 Skittles Toyota came alive when it counted, holding off second place finisher Joey Logano on the green-white checkered finish after taking the lead from Kevin Harvick on a lap 153 restart.

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have kissed the bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway three times since the inaugural running of the Brickyard 400 in 1994. But JGR hasn't celebrated at Indianapolis since Tony Stewart's win back in 2007.

Carl Edwards, the newest member of JGR, made a huge stride in breaking the team's streak at the storied speedway by recording the quickest time in Saturday's qualifying for the Jeff Kyle 400 on Sunday afternoon.

Edwards now has two pole position starts this season; Edwards only won 13 poles in 11 seasons while competing in the Sprint Cup series with Roush Fenway Racing.

Motorsports magnate Tony Stewart said the core quality to his brand is authenticity.

And as NASCAR returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for this Sunday's Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series owner-driver is right in his wheelhouse.

Geographically, he's home, and spiritually he's at peace. This sprawling 328-acre icon of technology and speed is not just mere asphalt and steel for the Columbus, Ind., resident. If bricks and pavement and garages and grandstands and even a pagoda can be fused into human DNA, then the stupendous whole of this grand facility spins through his soul as coiled comfort and essential emotion.

They are brash, fearless and fast.

They are the Busch brothers, those Las Vegas gunslingers that NASCAR promoters and TV producers crave, and some fans hate to love.

After enduring more than a few painful twists and turns over their careers, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch seem to have finally landed in comfort zones.

Kyle is currently the hottest driver in the sport, reeling off three wins over the past four races in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
When he was forced to miss the first 11 events of the 2015 season due to a broken foot and leg, Kyle was basically written off as a contender in NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship.

Random thoughts about NASCAR as the traveling road show heads to the heartland and a Sunday show at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

So what's all the fuss about water bottles and what drivers do with them. From this standpoint, it's quite simply making a mountain out of a hole hill.

Of course if one's favorite driver is slowed by the hole hill, then it's a different story. Just look at the reaction from Loudon last Sunday as the result of a yellow flag being thrown at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.