Kyle Busch is no doubt ready to put New Hampshire Motor Speedway in his rear-view mirror. Sadly, for the three time New Hampshire winner, the rear-view mirror on the Richard Childress Racing Chevy he raced this weekend might be a little bent.
What started out as an awful weekend on Saturday ended in a mercy killing Monday.
On Saturday, Busch spun in practice but was able to get going with no apparent damage. Less than an hour later however, during his qualifying lap he spun again, this time the Chevy made contact with the wall.
The team at first said they would go to a back up car, but later said they would repair the primary.
With the race rained out on Sunday and finally started Monday Busch was forced to start in the back of the field and only made it up to as high as 25th at one point. But coming to the end of Stage 1 coming out of Turn 3 on lap 71 Busch’s Chevy broke loose and smacked the wall coming out of Turn 4.
“I killed it.” Busch said on his team radio.
Not long after the team was able to confirm that news, and Busch was out of the race, his 4th DNF of the 2023 season. Busch said that there was nothing on the track that caused his final spin.
“No, I’ve been lacking right-rear grip the whole time we’ve been here,” he said. “Just couldn’t get the right-rear feel in the racetrack. You’re just going along trying to keep it under you as much as you can. It was getting late in the run, and I was trying a different line and it was just too high. I didn’t like to be that high on entry. I couldn’t give it wheel and have the right-rear stick with the lateral grip that you need.
“Hate it for our No. 8 Lenovo Chevy team. Our Chevy stuff was a little off this week, at least for us anyways. We’ll get back to it at Pocono (Raceway).”
Indeed, Busch will hope that Pocono Raceway will be kinder to him. He has 4 wins there, the last coming in 2021.
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.