Kyle Busch rebounded from a midrace, backstretch spin to tally a top 10 finish at Charlotte. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
CONCORD, N.C. – Although the box score showed a smooth, consistent performance from Kyle Busch and his No. 8 Alsco Chevrolet team, it was anything but ordinary on Monday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Despite starting from the fifth position as a result of rain cancelling qualifying on Saturday evening, Busch had an eventful but productive Coca-Cola 600. Certainly, Busch kept himself in the hunt by placing seventh in Stages 1.
However, a Lap 177 spin on the backstretch put him in a precarious position, namely with his car facing his peers versus forward toward the track and line of sight. Like Cole Trickle in the Daytona 500 scenes of Days of Thunder, Busch drove his car backwards toward pit road before turning it around in a more traditional manner.
From there, it was a battle of wits and patience with rallying toward the front of the field. By all means, Busch and his Richard Childress Racing team banded together in Stage 3, tallying a seventh place finish.
In the final stage of the rain delayed 600-miler, Busch was smart, smooth and patient, keeping himself out of harm’s way while his pit crew did their part to remain in contention. Throughout the eventful Stage 4, the man known as “Rowdy” was more like savvy, hovering inside the top 10 while other contenders fell by the wayside.
Sometimes, it is about securing a solid top 10 result as Busch attests with Monday evening’s race. (Photo: Mitchell Richtmyre | The Podium Finish)
When all was said and done, Busch drove to a sixth place finish at Charlotte, a respectable result given the ups and downs of Monday evening’s race.
“Coca-Cola 600 races are normally up-and-down and we definitely had an up-and-down day, but the guys fought hard all race long and made some good adjustments,” Busch said in a team press release. “There were a couple that we had to go back on, and then go back on again.”
Given how track conditions changed from relatively cool and overcast during the daylight to cooler, overnight skies, Busch’s team, mainly with crew chief Randall Burnett, had to keep up with their adjustments. Once Busch rallied back into the top 10, it was a matter of how much progress he would make once the race was in the books.
Considering the Lap 177 spin and lack of practice and qualifying time, Busch, who moves up to the 10th position in the championship standings, was appreciative of his team’s efforts, particularly with persevering through the challenges of their race day efforts.
“All in all, I’m proud of everyone on the No. 8 Alsco Chevy team,” he said. “Our car wasn’t as fast as we wanted on the fire-offs at the beginning of a run. We wanted the long run to finish, even though we hadn’t been good on the long runs all night, because we adjusted for that.
“We just didn’t get it. We’ll take a good solid effort and top-10 finish and move on to Gateway next week.”
