NEWTON, Iowa: With just 10 races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Kyle Busch and his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team were looking to Iowa Speedway to earn much-needed points in Sunday night’s Iowa Corn 350.
Unfortunately for the Las Vegas, Nev. native, his sophomore woes behind the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE continued in the inaugural Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway.
Early in the 17th points-paying Cup Series race of the season, Busch was able to capitalize on the track position of a decent qualifying run on Saturday afternoon to propel him to his sixth top-10 finish of the season.
From the drop of the green flag, Busch maintained a pace inside the top-10 after starting his No. 8 Chevrolet from the seventh position.
Decent lap speeds allowed Busch to maintain his presence inside the top-10 even though he was fighting a tight race car off the center of the corners. Busch made a trip to pit road on Lap 54 for tires, fuel and an adjustment.
Restarting ninth, Busch would lose just one position over the final 12 laps in Stage 1 to earn a single point in the stage with a 10th-place result.
A strong pit stop by the Richard Childress Racing driver allowed him to restart in the sixth position. Before Lap 100, Busch climbed inside the top five and maintained a spot inside the top-10 until he made a pit stop under green flag conditions at Lap 134.
Following his pit stop, a caution would wave, trapping Busch a lap down. He would eventually receive the free pass before the end of Stage 2 – finishing just outside the top-10 in 12th.
Trying to regain track position in Stage 3, Busch could climb back into the top-10 but reported to the team that his No. 8 Chevrolet had been the loosest the entire race.
It didn’t matter, though; Busch’s race began to unravel a short time later when Busch informed crew chief Randall Burnett that he believed he had a tire going down.
Busch brought his car to the attention of his RCR team, which determined that it was not a tire issue but a mechanical failure.
He took his car to the garage, where the team made repairs. After spending a short time in the garage, Busch returned to the track briefly before he reported power steering issues, which sent the two-time Cup Series champion back to the garage and officially done for the night.
Busch was credited with a 35th-place finish for the second race in three weeks.
“Yeah, I don’t know what happened, but Next Gen parts and pieces broke,” said Busch. “Something in the left-rear suspension – I don’t know if it was a toe link or what it was, but it changed the skew of the back of the car and it was just undrivable doing that. We came in and fixed it. Rolling back out, we broke the belt. I have no idea, but frustrating, for sure.”
Busch also finished 35th at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway after being involved in a mid-race accident.
With his second DNF (Did Not Finish) of the season, Busch dropped to 18th in the Cup Series championship standings, 31 points behind Bubba Wallace, who occupies the 16th and final spot with nine races remaining in the regular season.
“Not what we wanted for all of our No. 8 Zone Chevy guys; everybody from Kwik Star,” added Busch. “We were having a pretty decent day. I thought we had a top-10 run going. We had an opportunity there to score some points, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
It’s been five Cup races since Busch has scored a top-10 finish in Cup Series competition.
With time running out to deliver his team a victory, Busch and his team must head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend and attempt to stop the bleeding.
Busch, however, said Friday at Iowa Speedway that he wasn’t looking forward to visiting the “Magic Mile” after the 1.0-mile oval in Loudon, New Hampshire, delivered nothing but headaches for the No. 8 team from practice to the race.
Busch exited last summer’s Crayon 301 with a miserable 36th-place result after crashing early in the race.
The 39-year-old can’t bear to accept another poor finish in the run to the Playoffs. By this time last season, Busch had already been guaranteed a spot in the Playoff with three wins in his inaugural season for RCR.
This year, the No. 8 team is on the verge of throwing a Hail Mary or praying for a miracle to turn their season around and open the door for Busch to chase his third Cup Series championship.
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
