Kyle Busch recovered from a pit road speeding penalty at the end of the second stage of Sunday’s GEICO 500, but he couldn’t shake off the effects of a 14-car wreck with 22 laps left in the race.
Busch came to Talladega Superspeedway seeking a fourth straight victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Instead, he fell victim to the same “Talladega curse” that ended the winning streaks of three NASCAR Hall of Famers.
Bobby Allison (1972), Dale Earnhardt (1987) and Rusty Wallace (1993) all came to Talladega with victory strings of three races or more and failed to extend their streaks at Talladega. Now you can add Kyle Busch to that list.
“Once we got in that wreck, it was over, but we had a decent car up until then,” said Busch, who finished 13th. “We got the car handling better all day long, and every adjustment we made to it was an improvement and gave us more on the race track, but we just lack speedway speed.”
Both Busch and Kevin Harvick have won three consecutive races this season. Harvick’s string ran out at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
- NASCAR to debut new short track package at Phoenix - February 28, 2023
- The Wrench Who Stole Racing - December 16, 2022
- Matt DiBenedetto’s excellent run comes to abrupt, violent end - February 17, 2019
