California-Born Leffler Fancies His Adopted Indiana Home
Busch’s year is overshadowing some great seasons for other series drivers; case in point is Jason Leffler. A California native who feels right at home at ORP due to his outstanding USAC days, he’s quietly putting together his best season. And coming “home” to ORP, he should be considered a darkhorse favorite to win.

He’s fourth in the standings and has accumulated five top fives and 14 top 10s this season; his career highs are eight and 17 in 27 races in 2004. Leffler won the first NASCAR Nationwide Series race for Toyota in 2007 at ORP. He has three top fives in six races there plus a pole. He made his series debut at the track in 1999 for Busch’s current team, Joe Gibbs Racing.

Busch Having Magical Season
Series points leader and defending ORP race winner Kyle Busch has finished either first or second in his last seven races. He’s run four times at ORP in his NASCAR Nationwide Series career, winning two events. It’s been all or nothing for him at ORP’s .686-mile oval, though. He was 33rd in his first race in 2003, won in 2004, was 21st in 2006 and won last year.

Busch is in the midst of an amazing season. His six wins after 19 races are well on pace to surpass the single-season record of 10 set by Sam Ard in 1983 and tied by Busch last year. With 16 races to go, he also can challenge the series marks for top fives (25 in 32 races by Jeff Green in 2000) and top 10s (32 in 35 races by Kevin Harvick in 2006); Busch has 13 top fives and 16 top 10s in the 19 races thus far.

Two more consecutive top-two finishes would tie Jack Ingram’s 1983 record of nine straight.

ML Motorsports Steps Out On Home Turf
From the owners – the only mother-daughter tandem in NASCAR’s three national series – to the driver to the entire crew, ML Motorsports will definitely enjoy a homecoming at ORP. The No. 70 team, led by young driver Shelby Howard (Greenwood) is based in Warsaw, Ind., and is owned by Mary Louise and Stephany Mullen. Howard replaced Mark Green as the team’s home-grown driver earlier this year for the remainder of its partial 2009 schedule with an eye toward a full-time effort in 2010.

Howard has four top-14 finishes among his nine races this year and will have to qualify on time at ORP in order to race in front of the home crowd. He has yet to post a DNQ this year for MLM.