BROOKLYN, Mich: Kyle Busch’s frustration level has peaked at “one out of 10, infinity” following a Lap 24 exit from Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Before the start of Sunday’s rain-delayed race, Busch had been considered a pre-race favorite given the speed of his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry showcased during practice and qualifying on Saturday, but much like the last two months have unfolded for the Las Vegas, Nev. native – luck has been far from his side.
After spending the early laps of the race inside the top-10, Busch elected to join a majority of the field on pit road when the competition caution waved on Lap 20.
With varying strategies between the teams, Busch found himself in a hornet’s nest for the restart and while he had hoped that Michigan’s wide racing groove would allow the field to quickly fan out. Instead, chaos ensued on the restart and Busch found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Busch was one of nine drivers tangled in a Lap 25 accident in Turn 1 when Rick Ware Racing’s JJ Yeley lost control of his race car in the middle of race traffic.
Yeley, who was one of nearly a dozen teams who opted not to pit at the competition caution found himself inside the top-12 on when racing resume, but when he battled the handling of his race car, he was tagged by Michael McDowell which ignited a chain-reaction in the field that collected at least six other cars.
Busch was one of the major casualties alongside Aric Almirola, Harrison Burton, Austin Cindric, Ty Gibbs, Todd Gilliland and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The 37-year-old tried to escape the scene of the chaos by utilizing the outside lane but was caught by a spinning Aric Almirola which caused significant damage to both race cars.
“Just chaos ensued on the restart there and I don’t know what started it, but the No. 10 [Aric Almirola] got spun in front of me, and then I got wedged between him and the wall,” Busch explained.
“When you get back there, things happen on restarts, especially when you have guys that stayed out and don’t have tires versus those that have four tires.”
The Michigan incident though continued a rough stretch for the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who hasn’t seen a top-10 finish since finishing second at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in June – seven races ago.
The 60-time Cup winner also suffered his fourth DNF (did not finish) of 2022.
“I was not really in a hurry and knew we were coming to stage points in another 40 laps or so, and it was going to be a long run to get there, and then we all just crashed.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
