BRISTOL, Tenn.: Kyle Busch was not a factor for much of Wednesday night’s NASCAR All-Star Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but the driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry stormed into contention late in the 140-lap event but had to settle for second in his 15th All-Star appearance.
After the race, Busch admitted that the handling was not the best in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry, but swift adjustments from crew chief Adam Stevens allowed him to make big gains in the closing laps of Stage 3 – setting him up for the 15-lap dash to the finish.
Restarting fourth, Busch was able to vault to second around Ryan Blaney with 14 laps left, but despite his best efforts to chase down Elliott and earn his second million-dollar payday, his car’s handling appeared to deteriorate in the closing laps that kept him 0.418-second behind Elliott at the checkered flag.
“It just wasn’t quite wide enough,” said Busch. “If it had been a little bit wider and you could carry a little more speed with it, I might have had a chance. I tried to run up there early in the last stage to make it go a little earlier than I probably should have. I went back down because I knew I wasn’t going to catch him (Chase Elliott) or pass him there and I had to do something different. I just tried and I think we inched up a little closer on him, but that was about it.”
Busch praised Stevens for his adjustments at the end of Stage 2 for helping make the leap through traffic during the 35-lap stint in Stage 3.
“The M&M’s Camry, we’re trying hard and we’re running okay,” Busch explained. “It seemed like we were mired in 10th most of tonight and then the last couple adjustments really helped us. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) did a great job helping the car and making it better. I got a good restart. I think I went from 12th all the way up to fifth so that was a huge bonus for us getting that track position.”
Knowing how fast Elliott’s car was, Busch did not believe he would have been able to pass the Hendrick Motorsports driver if he had caught him.
“I just had to try something different than what we were doing,” explained Busch. “Even if I got to him, I wasn’t going to be able to pass him because the air following guys just wouldn’t let me get close enough all night.”
The effort was Busch’s best since finishing fifth in the first Pocono (Pa.) Raceway but the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion confessed that he is still searching for speed from his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry.
“It’s tough,” he acknowledged. “We’re struggling right now. There’s just no speed in our racecars for some reason. I don’t know what’s going on. It seemed like tonight, even when we were mired in 10th, I was driving 110% giving it everything I have just to maintain where the hell I was, not going forward. That’s usually not indicative of us, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, whatever.
“It’s certainly been frustrating this year. It seems like any time I fall into a rhythm, I back up myself just a little bit to 90, 95%, I’m going backwards. I’m getting passed, slowing down. You can’t run at 100% all the time every lap. When you do, you start making mistakes.
“We’ve just been run into a lot this year, too. When we’ve had nothing happen, we get run into. Those are bad finishes, as well. I don’t know. We can chalk it up to a whole bunch of things.
“For lack of a better term is we’ve got to be faster.”
Just past the halfway point of the regular season, Busch heads to Texas Motor Speedway without a stage win in 2020. Knowing that stage wins will be crucial in his effort to pursue a third Cup Series championship, Busch reflected on a recent season where his No. 18 struggled but were able to turn the corner late in the season.
Whether that magic can happen again or not, Busch seems unsure.
“Yeah, 2014 was really close to this,” sounded Busch. “We struggled super bad when we came out with this new body style, the Gen 6 body style. We were pretty bad as a company at JGR that year. We only won one non-restrictor plate race that year, that was at California. Rest of us didn’t win at all. That was for sure a frustrating season.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a win yet. But it feels just like that year. Man, I don’t know what’s going on or where it’s at. We do have six second place finishes. I think, four, five, six, whatever the hell it is. We’ve been close a couple of times. Many of the other races we’re getting run into.
“We’ve had flat tires, gone two laps down, tried to do the right thing and drive it back to pit road, not drive a caution. It penalizes us in the day. Now I understand why those guys do that.
“Other than that, you get run into by a guy that shouldn’t be pitting on the same pit lap as you, I think, at Talladega. I mean, I can keep going. No point in that.
“We got to fight harder, do better. That’s all there is to it.”
As for keeping the All-Star Race at Bristol, Busch’s appeared to have mixed feelings. While the race did seem to generate more excitement than its traditional races at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, it lacked the thrill that the All-Star is designed to create.
“I mean, it don’t matter to me,” Busch said. “It could rotate, that’s fine. Charlotte is close to home. It hasn’t put on the most dramatic and best finishes out there lately.
“Unfortunately for Bristol, with tonight, it didn’t seem to produce all that much excitement either. My bad (laughter). We’ll have to find something else that will, I guess, keep going.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
