JOLIET, Ill. – In a day where mistakes proved costly on pit road, Kurt Busch may have suffered the hardest hit of them all in Sunday’s Tales of Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
While Busch’s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford wasn’t going to contend for the win, he did have a good enough car that could contend for a top-five finish, but his day went downhill approaching the last series of green-flag pit stops.
Complaining of a vibration with his No. 41 Monster Energy / Haas Automation Ford, Busch pitted at Lap 200, but was assessed a speeding penalty in section 14 which sent the Daytona 500 champion back to pit road for a pass-thru penalty.
Exiting the pits two laps down on Lap 203 and 64 laps from the finish, the Las Vegas, Nev. native could only crawl to a 19th place finish when the checkered flag flew and 13th amongst the drivers competing for the 12 available slots for the second round of the playoffs.
With two races remaining in the first round of the playoffs, Busch is tied with Austin Dillon for the final transfer spot but returns to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend to a venue he has earned three Cup wins and earned an eighth-place finish in July.
If there’s a bright side to Sunday’s effort, Busch and crew chief Tony Gibson continue to elevate their No. 41 team after a dismal spring and summer months to the time where it counts most.
Since Pocono in late July, the team’s worst performance heading into Chicagoland was 13th at Pocono’s 2.5-mile triangle.
A string of three consecutive top-five finishes at Bristol, Darlington and Richmond, however, was halted in the Windy City, but it might be the motivation that propels the No. 41 team to victory next weekend at New Hampshire and a guaranteed slot into the Round of 12.
Time will tell.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
