Preses izdevums

DOVER, Delaware — Spike Lundberg’s third place finish at Dover International Speedway was enough to squeak past NASC’s reigning Gold Cup champion Raffaele Leo by a single point.

That single point meant an American would win the first ever Kyle Busch Memorial Championship, a Formula 4 racing series with an ensemble cast of star power tracing the late NASCAR star’s career on ovals and honoring Busch’s memory.

“I remember being a kid watching NASCAR with my grandfather, who would always tell me what he thought of each driver’s skill,” Lundberg said. “He told me Kurt Busch had a younger brother who was going to be very, very good. And that was a young Kyle Busch.”

Lundberg says Kyle Busch was not a favorite driver, but one he respected as Busch’s career unfolded and Lundberg worked his way through the ranks.

Remco Raveel took the win in the series finale, beating Silke Rasmussen and Lundberg to the start/finish line in the 124-lap race around “the Monster Mile.” Lundberg pulled his car down pit road, cut the engine and sat in the car for several minutes. Eventually, he composed himself and emerged to collect his championship trophy and to shake hands with his competitors.

“I am in shock right now; that’s as close as a series can get,” Lundberg said. “It’s unbelievable to win this thing.”

Lundberg won the series opener at Richmond, and also picked up a win at Worldwide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois. He finished in the top five eight of a possible 10 times.

The Season 64 NASC champion emerged from a field of NASC Gold Cup greats that includes Season 58 champion Remco Raveel, two-time Gold Cup series champion John Cannon (also an F1 and Australian Supercars champion), two time 911 Supercup champion Juan Barnard and eight-time Cup race winner Smokey Robinson.

“This is simply an outstanding field of competitors, and it shows how meaningful this effort to honor Kyle Busch really was,” Lundberg said. “Next to F1 or the Gold Cup series, I’d put the field we had for this series up against anything else in racing. Everyone is so fast and so good.”

Lundberg also named his longtime friend and NASC competitor Daniel Esteban Jr., his B15 Formula 1 teammate James Berg, Danish road course ace Silke Rasmussen and Polish IndyCar standout Jan Pawlowski among drivers he was lucky to fend off for the series win.

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On a personal note, huge thank you to everyone who took part in the Kyle Busch Memorial and to Phil7 for creating the series. In addition to being a heck of a driver, Kyle Busch and his family advocated for couples who struggle with infertility and for couples who pursue conception through in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF is stigmatized in certain places in American culture. As my wife and I went on our own pursuit of parenthood, learning more about Kyle, Samantha and their kids gave us some hope. As the parent of a child conceived with IVF, I’m thrilled to honor someone who advocated for it. This is a very, very meaningful MRC win for me. So thank you, Phil7.

-Chzbrgr