(Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Kyle Busch has won this season and is consequently locked into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. That allows him to take more chances.
At Talladega Superspeedway last month, Busch made an executive decision to stay out in NASCAR Overtime and push it on fuel. He ended up winning his second race as a result of it.
Other times, it’s killed him. In each of the last two weeks, Busch pushed it too far on pit road, picking up speeding penalties. He finished outside the top 20 both times, adding a DNF because of a crash at Kansas Speedway as an insult to injury.
Since the win at Talladega three weeks ago, Busch has slipped from fifth to 12th in driver’s points.
“I’m still super, super frustrated in our last couple of weeks and now dropping to 12th in points,” Busch said. “I’m still under the mindset and thought process to get as many points as we can. Get ourselves up the points ladder. We need to be able to contend for stage points. We have probably the least amount of stage points this year of anybody, so it’s very frustrating in that respect for us. We just have to get our act together and run up front.
“Like me speeding on pit road, right? I’m winning that award this year, but I’m also number one rolling on pit road this year, too. So what’s the risk versus reward there? We’re always going to push and having that win allows you to push. It allowed us to push fuel at Talladega to grab another win. You’re going to put yourself in some tighter spots on restarts and things like that because you do have that win and you’re going to be a little bit more aggressive.”
Kyle Busch is throwing it back to … his first win of the season at Auto Club Speedway. (Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
Though the last two weeks have been a hiccup for Busch, he’s still proven stout in his first season with Richard Childress Racing. He has three top fives and five top 10s and remains in the top 12 in points despite zero stage victories.
Busch rolls into the second third of the season as one of three drivers with multiple wins — Kyle Larson and William Byron each have a pair as well. The 38-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada is hoping he’ll be able to snag his third win on Sunday.
Busch has run consistently at Darlington Raceway over the years, recording a win in 2008 and placing in the top 10 in 13 of his 22 starts. He looked destined for a win at Darlington last fall with Joe Gibbs Racing before his engine expired under caution with less than 30 laps to go.
The 62-time Cup Series winner said that among all factors, the narrow racing groove is what makes Darlington the toughest for drivers.
“I think the biggest thing that makes it tough is just the one groove, one lane race track here where it’s very narrow and there’s kind of one way in getting around Turns 1 and 2,” Busch said. “You go in low; you wash up to the wall and you turn back down off of turn two. [Turns] 3 and 4 are a little bit more racy because you can go low and you can go high. But as tires wear, everybody tends to migrate to the top and be on the top. It’s hard to find that clean air in order to get enough front downforce under your car to make it turn and not get tight behind that guy in front of you.
“There is a trend here of how to make passes and stuff. Whoever that is with the slide job better go back and watch recent history because nobody lets you in. So if you try and throw it off into the corner underneath somebody and wash up in front of him, you’re going to crash because that guy is going to stuff it back on your outside.”
Sunday’s Goodyear 400 is set for 3 p.m. ET on FS1. Joey Logano is the defending winner.
