CONCORD, N.C.: Kyle Busch’s chances of defending his NASCAR Cup Series championship are over.
A gutsy call from the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team in the late stages of Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway put Busch in control of the field briefly but the circumstances never worked out for Busch who had to pit with two laps remaining for fuel and officially saw his Playoffs chances explode with a 30th place finish.
Busch had a topsy-turvy day at the 117-turn, 2.28-mile course. Starting ninth, Busch kept his No. 18 M&Ms Toyota Camry near the front as the race started on wet conditions but had to pit for slicks near the end of Stage 1 which kept them from earning crucial stage points.
In Stage 2, Busch continued his climb back through the field and had worked himself back inside the top-10, but on a restart in the closing laps of Stage 2, Busch made contact with Clint Bowyer which ultimately cut down a tire and forced the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion to limp to pit road for repairs and a new tire.
Restarting 36th on the lead lap in Stage 3, Busch was able to fight and claw back into the top-10 and eventually inside the top-five by Lap 80.
Five laps later Busch passed Joey Logano for third with the caution waving a short time later. Knowing that they were likely facing a must-win scenario to propel themselves into the Round of 8, crew chief Adam Stevens kept Busch on the track from Lap 88 to Lap 90 before being passed by JGR teammate Erik Jones on the restart.
Hovering inside the top-five, a late-race caution would have aided the team in their fuel gamble, but Busch had to pit and was left with a track-best on the ROVAL in 30th, surpassing a prior-best in 32nd in 2018.
While disappointed of being knocked out of the Playoffs, Busch chalked up the “off-year” to 2020 – an expression he’s vented throughout the year.
“Just trying to get everything we could get,” said Busch. “You come into a race like this and you throw a couple Hail Mary’s and they rarely work, especially when you don’t have the car. That 9 (Chase Elliott) car is spectacular here and it was super fast. I followed him for a lot of laps trying to figure it out and he just gets smaller and smaller as he’s driving away.
“I don’t know, it’s not just this race. It’s a whole season and it’s a culmination of things that led to this and led to our elimination. We knew it coming into this round that this was going to be the hardest round for us to get through. Pretty much impossible and it was. We weren’t able to make up enough or get a win. We’ll just have to fight for a win here the rest of the year.”
If being out of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs isn’t awful enough, Busch and the No. 18 team are still searching for their first victory of the season. And with only four races left, they are running out of time.
At this point, Busch knows 2020 hasn’t gone the way they had hoped, but it isn’t from a lack of effort by the team, it’s just simply how their cards have unraveled this season.
“It’s just been the year,” added Busch. “Nothing has played out and been on our side. It’s just been unfortunate circumstances, a lot of bad luck. These guys on this M&M’s Camry team never give up and they fight all year long and every race and every lap, every pit stop as we can see. Man, just one of them off years. It’s been a terrible year for me.
“As other sports greats would say, there’s many other drivers that would love to have a year that we’re having, but it’s just frustrating to know how good we are and what we’re capable of and being champions from last year to not come out here and be able to succeed and be able to win.
“Fact of the matter, if we could win, we would be a heck of a lot better off. I knew this round was going to be trouble with the year we had. I was right.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
