BRISTOL, Tenn: Kurt Busch knew he had to have a flawless performance during Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but the final round of the Round of 16 was anything but flawless for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver and team.
Busch was dubbed a pre-race favorite by many in the garage not only for his prior experience and winning capabilities at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” but the recent surge in performance from not only Busch but his teammate Ross Chastain too.
Entering Saturday night’s race Busch found himself in a deficit after a cut tire eliminated him early last weekend at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Unfortunately, things weren’t much better in Thunder Valley either.
Throughout the 500 grueling laps at Bristol, Busch struggled with the handling of his No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro.
Despite a conservative effort by Busch and his Matt McCall led team, Busch could not get the handling of his Chevrolet to his liking, and it kept him at bay and a disappointing 19th place finish the last car on the lead lap.
Unofficially, Busch was six points below the cutline.
“Really disappointing effort today,” said Busch. “That was not a championship-type effort. We missed it big time. We had bad luck last week and we have no shot at a championship this year. We have to race for pride, dignity and honor for the next few weeks.
“The team is shutting down and we’re eliminated early. That’s not the way we wanted this to go. Maybe we can crawl our way back up to a fifth to tenth-range in points. But tonight, was not a night to miss the setup.”
Many thought Hendrick Motorsports’ Wiliam Byron would find himself on the outside on Saturday, but a hard fought third place finish on Saturday pushed Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick out of the Playoffs by a mere two points.
Reddick rebounded from being a lap down in Stage 3 and charged to the top-15 in the closing laps of the race, but the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro could not find himself past Joey Logano or Matt DiBenedetto to dethrone Byron.
Reddick said though it wasn’t just Bristol that ended their Playoffs early.
“Unfortunately, we certainly gave up more than two spots over the course of this first round,” said Reddick. “Darlington, getting stuck down a lap at Richmond. Not just one key opportunity, but there was a number that was the difference.
“One situation, the situation tonight, doesn’t really stick out as the one that makes it sting. It was just unfortunate getting to the Playoffs, we don’t really have the pace that we had to just point our way into the Playoffs leaderboard.
“Missed it by two. Have the races we did. It kind of all adds up. For us to miss it by two and run the way we did isn’t a surprise.”
Out of contention for a championship, Reddick said his No. 8 team is poised to make the most out of the remaining seven races on the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
“Yeah, it stinks, but we still get to go race the last, I don’t know, six or seven races we have on the schedule,” added Reddick. “Good tracks for us. Our starting spot and pit stall won’t be as good, but everything else on the racetrack will be. We’ll make the most out of those races.
“I mean, winners never quit. Hopefully one day the right break will come our way. We continue to learn and get better even though we didn’t make it through to the Round of 12.
“We’ll see where it goes from here. Yeah, we’re not racing for a championship anymore, but we still have a lot to race for with this team. Make the most with the rest of the races we have.”
Aric Almirola who recovered from a faulty oil line rebound midrace and propelled his No. 10 Stewart Haas Racing Ford Fusion into the top-10, but like Busch the handling faded late in the race and Almirola saw his chances of contending for a Cup Series championship end with a 18th place finish – tied with Reddick at 2,075 points apiece.
“It was frustrating,” offered Almirola after the race. “Disappointed to have it end like that just because we had battled so much adversity throughout the night, got into a position where we were running top 10, doing what we were needing to do.
“Yeah, I don’t know. That’s not the way we wanted it to end. But we’ll keep going and battle it out the rest of the Playoffs and see if we can’t finish inside the top 10 in points.”
Like Reddick, Almirola couldn’t blame just Saturday night’s race at Bristol as the reason for their exit of the Playoffs.
“Just frustrated,” Almirola explained. “I mean, our season as a whole was not what we wanted. We went to Loudon and pulled out a win, which was awesome. Then just kind of had a renewed sense of energy going into the Playoffs.
“Thought we were going to do everything we needed to do in this first round to transfer to the next round. Unfortunately, didn’t pan out.
Can’t blame it on tonight. There was plenty of opportunities throughout the first two races where we gave up some points as well. I can find two points in a lot of different places, so, just frustrated.”
Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell was the last driver to be eliminated in the Round of 16.
The Front Row Motorsports driver found himself digging out of a hole following an accident in the opening round of the Playoffs at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on September 5 and despite their best efforts – their pace at Richmond Raceway and Bristol fell short on results to keep the team alive heading to the Round of 12 opener at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway on Sept. 26.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
