Kyle Busch lost his drafting help on the final lap Saturday night in Daytona and, besides wrecking Harrison Burton, had no other card to play.
Busch led the field at the white flag but lost the momentum from Christopher Bell through Turns 1 and 2 — a push that gave the Richard Childress Racing driver a few car lengths clear in the lead. But without momentum behind him, Busch fell into the clutches of the field off Turn 2 as Harrison Burton and Parker Retzlaff took a run on the outside to go to the front of the field. Burton was pushed clear of the No. 8 into Turn 3 and blocked Busch’s last-ditch efforts coming to the finish line.
“Unfortunately, [Bell], something happened off of Turn 2,” Busch said. “Or he got squirreled up and wasn’t to my rear bumper and then he was below the yellow line and I don’t know what was going on. It completely killed the bottom lane and the outside just rolled.
“Once we got to Turn 4, there just wasn’t enough energy with enough cars from behind me. I was relying on my own draft to try and pass [Burton], and that happened so slow that Ray Charles could block that. Besides wrecking him, there was nothing I could do.”
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A wreck with two laps to go in regulation gave Busch the race lead in the Coke Zero Sugar 400. He was the second car on the inside lane when there was contact at the front of the field. Austin Cindric spun from in front of Busch and Josh Berry was collected from the outside lane.
Busch chose the inside lane for the overtime attempt.
“I could have jumped up in front of [Burton] and probably taken that, but I don’t know that he would have kept straight on me,” he said. “I had more trust in [Bell] there, being a better ally, but didn’t work out.”
The two-time series champion remains winless on the season and without a spot in the postseason. Saturday night was his second consecutive top-five finish and fourth on the year.
“We did a lot of things right, had a lot of luck on our side missing a lot of those wrecks, which was really cool,” Busch said. “I’m glad to not get torn up and beat up more than I have already this year. A good day for the Cheddar’s team, everybody on this Chevrolet Camaro — they did a great job. Randall [Burnett] and the guys brought a fast car, so I hate that I wasn’t able to get the job done, but it is what it is.”