LONG POND — Anyone that has played a sport, has somebody that they looked up to — somebody that they wanted to emulate and be like.

For Kyle Busch, that person is three-time NASCAR Cup champion and Stewart-Haas team owner Tony Stewart.

So it was only fitting that on a gorgeous day in the Poconos, that Busch would tie Stewart in the career wins department (49) with his sixth win of the season and his second career win at the “Tricky Triangle.”

“I mean, any time you’re able to continue to win races in this series, it’s obviously just that extra step, and you keep continuing to climb the ladder,” said Busch. “There’s a lot of great names that I’ve passed already and that I’ve tied today with Tony and that I very much look up to that are higher and look to one day be able to accomplish all of them.

“Tony is a great friend of mine and one of the guys that I kind of looked up to coming up through. He was a great teammate and is a good friend, so it was cool to tie him today.”

Stewart, nicknamed “Smoke” in his career might have wanted to loan that title to Busch at Pocono this season for how much he’s smoked the competition.

That’s because Busch has not only won a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race in 2018 at Pocono, but also the Xfinity Series race back in June and the Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday. Busch has also completed the trifecta sweep at Bristol, twice in 2010 and 2017.

“I actually thought about that earlier, we won the Xfinity race here, too, this year, so we won Truck, Xfinity and a Cup race here, so that’s pretty neat. I guess we just missed one, winning the Cup race here in the spring,” said Busch.

“Overall, it feels really good, and I strive to get better at each and every racetrack, and you try to do that every year, and things change; setups change; cars change; aerodynamics change; tires change; all kinds of things. And just with all that stuff, you’ve got to keep ahead of it and keep on top of it and try to make sure that you’re giving everything you’ve got to your team and making sure that you’ve got the stuff to get it done.”

Now with 49 MENCS wins and over 190 wins in all three of NASCARs top series, running out of room in the trophy case is a possibility.

“I build trophy cases to then house trophies, and I get more and I don’t have any more room,” said Busch. “I do have a trophy case problem. I ask for bonuses in my contract, so that I can make new trophy cases.

“So I’m behind right now. There’s a lot of them that are in people’s rooms at KBM or offices and they’re on the floor and they’re on desktops and whatever.”

Busch will look to get his seventh win of the season as the MENCS heads to Watkins Glen on Sunday.