Kyle Busch just can’t seem to catch a break it seems. The Richard Childress Racing driver is still winless in 2024, and his latest troubles started even before the green flag fell Sunday.
Busch stood on pit road where his No. 8 Chevrolet should have been parked. However, the team discovered an oil leak as they pushed the car to the starting grid and were forced to hustle it back to the garage to try and determine a fix. They were able to affect repairs, but Busch was forced to start from the rear.
As the race got underway, Busch struggled and never really had the speed struggling to try and get into the top 20. In the end his effort didn’t equal the results.
On the restart after the races sixth caution on lap 122, as the field behind the leaders fanned out, chaos erupted entering Turn 1.
Busch was tapped by Corey LaJoie and sent spinning back up into the field. He swept up AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton, and LaJoie. Only Allmendinger emerged and was able to continue.
Replays showed that LaJoie appeared to get into Busch after Busch tried to block him coming into the turn. LaJoie’s team seemed to add to that narrative.
“You let him have it the first time,” LaJoie’s crew chief Ryan Sparks said on the team radio. “The second time, he got what he deserved.”
The DNF for Busch is his fourth in the last six races, and an already long hot summer for Busch carries on. Afterwards, Busch seemed to try and maintain an air of civility.
“I just want to give thanks to all of our partners,” Busch said to the TV cameras. “Everybody at RCR, ECR, zone, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Lucas Oil, Chevrolet everybody that supports us. We’re having the opportunity to go out there and have some fun; try to continue to work on our program and build everything up. It’s just unfortunate circumstances. Thank you to Rowdy Nation, all the fans and everybody for their continued support. We’ll go back to work and get ready for Indianapolis.”
He did seem to show a bit of emotion to the assembled media later.
“Of course, you have mirrors and cameras and everything else, so you try to get in front of the run that’s coming,” he said. “I was trying to get in front of that run and sometimes some don’t lift. Kamikaze.”
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.
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