For the second Darlington race in a row Kyle Busch saw his race end early Sunday. After leading 19 laps, Busch saw his race end after being the victim of someone else’s misfortune.
On lap 174 just after the restart from Stage 2, Busch was minding his own business when Brad Keselowski’s Ford lost a tire heading into Turn 2. Keselowski went up and into the frontstretch wall pinning Busch’s Toyota and causing too much damage for Busch to continue.
“Just the (No.) 6 car blew a right-front tire off of (Turn) 2 and I had nowhere to go, just got collected up and something not of our doing, but it’s frustrating for having a good M&M’s Camry,” Busch said.
“It was nice to be running top five, lead some laps there, and it just felt like we’re trying to hone in on the setup — the short run versus the long run — and where we want it to be good and what all was going to pay dividends at the end of the day. But oh well.”
Should Kyle Busch be called to the NASCAR hauler for this? pic.twitter.com/uONT02RugP
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 5, 2021
Busch slowly took his damaged car to pit lane, but stopped just prior to the entrance to the garage, parked it, got out, and walked away. Last September Busch clipped the car of Austin Dillon on lap 125. Like Sunday, he took the car to pit road, however, instead of stopping he left pit road running over some cones near some pedestrians and crewmembers. Later that week, NASCAR fined Busch $50,000 for a safety issue.
That might explain why he stopped his car short of the garage entrance Sunday. Or as Busch said:
“I Just couldn’t make the corner.”
Busch was scored 33rd.
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.