HAMPTON, Ga.— Kyle Busch missed his first win of 2024 by 0.007 seconds at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday—and he didn’t even finish second.
Busch started third and led 28 laps in the Ambetter Health 400—a wild race slowed by 10 cautions and 65 yellow-flag laps.
The driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet remained in the hunt, only to lose a three-wide battle at the finish line to race winner Daniel Suarez and second-place Ryan Blaney.
“It’s frustrating,” Busch said. “I hate it because I felt like we were one of the top-five cars today and had a good shot. The 12 (Blaney) was deservingly one of the faster cars, and with all the carnage, it took out some other guys early.
“I just got a little too far ahead of the 99 and he got a good side draft through the corner. I didn’t think the outside would prevail, but with the run down the frontstretch and the side draft, that is what hurt us. I was looking at the 12, and I swore I was ahead of the 12 at the line, but obviously, my eyes are bad. Need more powerful glasses, I guess.”
Busch took the lead from pole-sitter Michael McDowell on the first lap. But he didn’t keep his nose clean entirely. On Lap 53, he tagged his former teammate Denny Hamlin and sent the No. 11 Toyota spinning off into the frontstretch grass. Busch rebounded to finish fifth in the first stage on Lap 60. He restarted 26th for the second stage and methodically worked his way to the front.
He was running second behind Kyle Larson when some of the Chevy drivers elected to pit on Lap 135, lost a lap with a pit road speeding penalty and was mired in the rear of the field when the caution flew for a wreck involving Joey Logano, Hamlin and Chris Buescher just prior to the end of Stage 2 on Lap 160.
Busch restarted 25th for the final 90 laps. Six laps into the segment, he tagged Kaz Grala entering Turn 1, but he regained the lead lap as the highest-scored lapped car under the subsequent caution. Through attrition—and patience—Busch improved his position to third by Lap 211. While he would move around the top five, Busch restarted third following the 10th and final caution with five laps remaining.
With a push from Bubba Wallace, Busch cruised up to second after taking the white flag behind Blaney, who held the point but couldn’t stop the run from Suarez, who took the Nos. 8 and 12 three-wide from the outside.
“There towards the end, you don’t have that many alliances,” Busch said. “All my friends kind of disintegrated and went away throughout the day. Bubba came to the rescue, and he was a huge part of our success there off of (turn) two and down the backstretch and getting a run.
“Getting alongside Blaney was a tight fit, but being able to make that move – if I didn’t make that move, then I push Blaney out too far through three and four and he wins. So, glad to see a Chevy in victory lane.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
