KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kyle Busch couldn’t wait to get out of Kanas Speedway.
And it wasn’t because he was tired of dodging questions about his future in the NASCAR Cup Series, but because the Joe Gibbs Racing driver struggled throughout Sunday afternoon’s Hollywood Casino 400.
A mid-pack qualifying effort for Busch on Saturday would put doubt in some on whether the Las Vegas, Nev. native had enough speed to rally his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry through the field.
His progression was slow, especially in Stage 1 but as the race marched forward so did his progression through the field.
By the end of Stage 1, Busch had muscled himself into the top-10 in seventh and collected three stage points to assist in his Playoff efforts.
During Stage 2, Busch has worked his way to third place when the caution came out at Lap 110 for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. That yellow flag sent the teams and drivers to pit road for service, with Busch maintaining his placement inside the top-five.
Unfortunately, one of Busch’s tires rolled out of his pit box and into one of his competitors which drew an equipment interference penalty which sent Busch to the tail end of the field for the restart.
While understandably frustrated by the penalty, Busch quickly went to work and began shuffling his way back through the field until on Lap 137, he spun off the exit of Turn 4 which blew his right rear tire and appeared to cause some damage underneath his race car.
Returning to the race one lap down, Busch would earn the free pass at the end of Stage 2 which put him back on the lead lap.
Busch, however, was unable to get a solid grasp of his race car as the well-balanced race car he drove at the beginning of the race was history and instead he had to manhandle his racecar all the way to checkered flag.
He finished 26th, two laps in the arrears to Bubba Wallace and was the third worst Playoff driver of the race finishing ahead of other Playoff drivers Tyler Reddick in 35th and Kevin Harvick in 36th.
“Just got really loose and it snapped around me,” said Busch of his race spin. “Then I had damage from going through the grass. Kind of ruined the rest of our day, but it was whatever happened on that pit stop that set us backwards to get us back in traffic there.
“Tried to make an adjustment to the car to make it faster and it did make it faster, but definitely made it looser.”
With another sour finish to the start of his Cup Series Playoff campaign, Busch heads to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for next Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race the first driver out of the Playoffs but only by two points.
In fact, 10th place to 15th in the Playoffs are separated by a mere 13 points with one race remaining in the Round of 16.
Busch hopes Thunder Valley will be kinder to him than Darlington and Kansas – and eyes his ninth career Cup Series win in his 33rd overall start.
Although, at the moment, Busch isn’t too confident he will advance forward to the Round of 12.
“Not with the luck of this year, nope,” sounded Busch. “We’ll go and try hard and if what Bristol has always been to me occurs, we’ll be fine. With the way this year has been, if that occurs, it’s going to be ugly.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
