(Photo: Jared Bokanoski | The Podium Finish)
CONCORD, N.C. — Following elimination at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Kyle Busch took all the blame.
Entering the Round of 12 finale at 26 points below the cutline, Busch faced a likely must-win situation in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 to advance. He gave it all he had after earning track position in Stage 3, coming home with a third-place finish but failing to transfer.
“We gave it a valiant effort,” Busch said after the race. “That was about what we thought we would get out of here, at least what I thought. We wanted to come in here and win. This team is capable of running and they gave me a great car today. The Lenovo Camaro was fast. We had good speed in it, just wasn’t able to hold on with the tires as long as I wanted to.”
Busch shouldered the blame after how the first two races in the round played out. He crashed early at Texas Motor Speedway and finished 34th before tallying a 25th at Talladega Superspeedway, putting the pressure on at Charlotte. The 38-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada started fifth and short pitted each of the first two stages but managed to earn a total of four stage points as stops cycled through.
Busch and his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team played their stop at the end of Stage 2 perfectly, emerging as the leader to start Stage 3 once those that stayed out pitted under yellow. He ended up battling toe-to-toe with AJ Allmendinger for the win — Allmendinger securing the lead on Lap 58 and leading 46 laps in the closing stage.
Through a series of late restarts, Allmendinger continued to prevail over Busch. William Byron got past Busch and challenged the Kaulig Racing driver for the win while Busch had to settle for third and an exit from the playoffs.
“I didn’t feel the pressure really,” Busch said. “I just tried to go out there and do my job and execute and get it get it done. But you know, the 16, he’s a great road racer. I call him Mr. ROVAL if you will. He wins here all the time. He’s super good here, he knows how to do this stuff. They earned it today for sure.”
(Photo: Jared Bokanoski | The Podium Finish)
Admittedly, Busch wasn’t sure if making the Round of 8 would be attainable in his first season with RCR. However, the team cranked out three victories in the first 15 races and seemed like a perennial contender for the championship.
Starting at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July, things started to spiral. He hit the wall in both practice and qualifying before an early exit in the race. Similarly to Texas, Busch crashed out early at Michigan International Speedway. He finished 36th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course because of mechanical issues.
Busch started off the playoffs with respectable runs of 11th at Darlington Raceway and seventh at Kansas Motor Speedway. He finished 20th at Bristol Motor Speedway before unfortunate circumstances to open the second round.
“It rides on my shoulders anyway with the previous two weeks – not getting anything out of Texas [Motor Speedway] and not getting a whole lot out of Talladega [Superspeedway],” Busch explained. “I put ourselves in a lot of bad spots and they’ve just come to work on Monday and fought and battled through it and given us another good car to go the next week. A lot of it rides on me, just getting sloppy, not doing a very good job.
“I’m not making excuses, but trying to figure this car out. I just lose the balance of it. Did it again today — was able to get a third out of it, but probably would have been worse off than that if it wasn’t for the track position.”
While Busch is out of the championship fight, he still has plenty to race for. Sitting 12th in both driver’s points and owner’s points, he’s hopeful to rocket up the standings in the final four races of the season.
“It’ll certainly be a good building block for our program and what we’ve got going on at RCR right now with everybody at Team Chevy,” Busch said. “My first year over here, I don’t know if I expected the Round of 8, I guess I did.
“All in all, give me Texas back, give me Talladega back and we can do it.”
