Kyle Busch back behind wheel in Hampton

MOORESVILLE, N.C. - Kyle Busch will return to the seat of his Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) No. 18 Dollar General Tundra for Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.

Kyle Busch with Jason Leffler, Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Friday night's 130- lap race - which is being sponsored by the potato chip brand endorsed by Foxworthy, a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour - marks a fitting return for KBM's owner-driver, who is a 'blue-collar' driver - willing to get behind the wheel of any type of vehicle, in any series, at any type of track.

After making 16 starts in each of his team's first two seasons in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Busch will be making his first series start of 2012. Over his 32 starts in 2010 and 2011, the boss led KBM to 14 of its 16 victories, all eight poles and 24 top-five finishes.

Behind the strength of his series-leading eight victories in 2010, the No. 18 group became the first team to capture an Owner's championship in its inaugural season since the Truck Series originated in 1995.

The Las Vegas native - who has been victorious in an amazing 29.7% (30 of 101) of the Truck Series races he has entered over his career - is a four-time winner at Atlanta, but will be looking to drive into victory lane for the first time in his own equipment.

Busch won in each of his first three starts in NASCAR's third division at the 1.54-mile Quad-oval and was victorious again in 2009. Since starting his own team, he has finished second and third, respectively in 2010 and 2011.

The No. 18 Tundra has been fast all season long, but for one reason or another has been unable to find victory lane. KBM's blue-collar boss is hoping that he can, as another member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour - Larry the Cable Guy - says, 'Git-Ir-Done' behind the wheel Friday night.

Kyle Busch, Driver of the No. 18 NCWTS Dollar General Tundra:

Your brother Kurt is also entered in Friday's race, how cool is it going to be racing against him in the Truck Series? "Kurt was very successful as a rookie in the Truck Series and that earned him a full-time Cup ride quickly. By the time I got to the Truck Series, Kurt had already established himself in the Cup Series and for whatever reason, he didn't really run any Nationwide or Truck Series races, so we never got the chance to race against each other in NASCAR until I made it to the Cup Series.

We've been able to race against each other a few times this year in the Nationwide Series, but it's been mostly working together in the tandem draft on the superspeedways. It will be really cool to be competing against each other in the trucks -- it's such a fun series to race in. How exciting would it be to see things come down to a battle of me versus Kurt for the win on Friday night?"

What does it take to be successful at Atlanta Motor Speedway? "It takes a lot of things. You have to have a lot of grip, you have to have a lot of downforce, you have to have tire management, a great engine and fuel mileage too. There are a lot of circumstances that it can come down to at the end and what it will boil down to.

In last year's truck race, Clint (Bowyer) and I ran first and second pretty much all race long and then (Ron) Hornaday ended up winning the race on fuel mileage. It seems like a few Truck Series races this season have come down to fuel mileage -- we had the dominant truck at Michigan with my brother Kurt until it came down to fuel mileage -- so we'll have to keep an eye on how it plays out on Friday and keep it in the back of our minds with our strategy."

Source: Kyle Bush Motorsports