DARLINGTON, South Carolina – About an hour into Friday afternoon’s final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice session at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Kyle Busch made hard contact with the Turn 2 wall and will revert to a backup car for the remainder of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 race weekend.
Busch, a contender for the Chase to the Sprint Cup stepped out of the groove in Turn 2 with his No. 18 M&Ms Crispy Toyota Camry and slammed the outside wall.
The Las Vegas, Nevada native immediately radioed to his team that he felt they would need to pull out the backup car. After review from crew chief Adam Stevens in the garage, the definite call was made to unload the backup No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry, which Busch will utilize for qualifying Saturday afternoon and the race Sunday night.
Before the incident, the 31-year-old clocked in the eighth fastest time, the second fastest from the JGR camp.
If there’s any good news from the crash, Busch won’t have to relinquish his starting spot for Sunday’s race since the incident took place before qualifying.
Busch enters the weekends with four Cup victories tied with six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
Despite missing the first 11 races from injuries sustained in the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in Feb., Busch is ranked 29th in Cup points and has four wins, five top-fives and six top-10s in the last nine races.
Busch later in the session return to the track in his backup car where he turned 21 laps, before finishing 34th quickest overall.
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