DARLINGTON, S.C.: Kyle Busch’s bid to claim a third NASCAR Cup Series championship got off to a rocky start on Sunday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was eliminated from the Cook Out Southern 500 early in Stage 2.
On Lap 125, the Las Vegas, Nev. native was battling Austin Dillon, but Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet made contact with Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry sending Busch hard into the outside Turn 2 wall.
Busch limped his hurt automobile back to pit road where he informed his Joe Gibbs Racing team that his car was junk, and was taking it to the garage.
Before the crash, the night wasn’t all that spectacular for the two-time Cup winner this season. After starting Stage 1 in 12th, Busch briefly climbed inside the top 10, but finished Stage 1 outside the top-10, one of six Playoff drivers to do so.
Busch had hoped that adjustments that crew chief Ben Beshore made would improve the handling of his race car for the second stage, but his race was over before the stage got any traction.
Busch, however, did not blame Dillon for the accident. Instead, he blamed the performance on utilizing data from a recent simulation session.
“It wasn’t the 3’s (Austin Dillon) fault,” said Busch. “Just take our lumps, you know. We were running like shit, and that’s what you get when you run like shit.
“Shouldn’t be there. I don’t know what our problem is. Every time we go to sim and use sim and think we have a good sim session we go to the race track, and we suck. I’m done with that. We’ll have to use some other tools on figuring out how to be good.
“The M&M’s Camry was not very good, and we were running terrible, and we got wrecked. It wasn’t the 3’s fault.”
Busch entered the night fourth in the reseeded Cup Series Playoff standings but will lose numerous positions and likely find himself in a deficit following his 35th place finish.
Two rounds remaining in the Round of 16 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway respectively. In April, Busch, 36, finished eighth after starting 10th.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01
