LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Kyle Busch had an eventful Sunday at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway but came up two positions short in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube to completing the weekend sweep after winning both the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series races respectively.
After being one of the cars to beat throughout much of the event and finishing second in Stage 1, Busch’s day took a plunge during a round of green-flag pit stops which began on Lap 124.
During his stop at Lap 129, Kyle Busch was penalized for speeding on pit road. He was forced to make a drive-thru on pit road under green flag conditions. Busch sped during the first section of pit road which could have been contributed to him smoking his tires when he came onto pit road.
Busch returned to the race track in 24th, one lap down, but as pit stops continued to cycle, Busch found himself back on the lead lap and had crawled back to 18th at the end of Stage 2.
Restarting 16th for the start of Stage 3, Busch methodically began his march forward and re-entered the top-10 on Lap 188. Busch claimed the lead on Lap 216 as final stops occurred, but after making his final trip down pit lane, Busch found himself sixth but when Daniel Suarez and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made their stops, Busch climbed to fourth and used the remaining laps to hunt down Kevin Harvick who he passed with five laps to go.
Busch finished third collecting his third straight top-10 finish to start 2019. He finished second and sixth respectively in the opening two events at Daytona and Atlanta.
After the race, Busch gave the perception that the series’ new aerodynamic package kept him from earning his first Las Vegas weekend sweep.
“The cars don’t have any speed,” Busch said. “You’re wide open just trying to suck off of any cars that you can that’s in front of you and get a draft, and I was running 31 flats when I was chasing those leaders down, and then once I got there I stalled out to 31:40’s because the wind was just so bad behind those guys that you couldn’t corner anymore. You couldn’t maneuver. I couldn’t run low.
“If they ran low, I couldn’t run high; if they ran high so you’re always trying to figure out which way to go.”
Despite the frustration of Sunday, Busch took responsibility for the mid-race error.
“I certainly screwed up our day. Coming to pit road there we tried a different brake package for us this weekend and trying to make up time, and in order to get a bigger jump on the guys behind me coming to pit road there, just ruined it for us, and we had to come from the back.
“I think we passed the most cars today, so I think we were the most impressive today but doesn’t matter because we don’t have a trophy. Whatever. Next week.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
