Kyle Busch shouldered the responsibility for the elimination of his Richard Childress Racing team from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Busch finished third in the postseason’s second elimination race, but he needed a victory to advance, having entered the weekend 26 points below the cutline. The two-time series champion suffered a DNF at Texas Motor Speedway in the first race of the round and was 25th at Talladega Superspeedway. He earned a combined 15 points in those races.
“A lot of it rides with me just getting sloppy, not doing a very good job, and I’m not making excuses but trying to figure this car [out],” Busch said. “I just lose the balance of it; did again today. I was able to get a third out of it but probably would have been worse off than that if it wasn’t for the track position.”
Although the No. 8 team was focused on the win, Busch and crew chief Randall Burnett also managed to earn points in both stages and positioned themselves near the front at the end. Busch pitted with four laps to go in the first stage and finished eighth, earning three points. The team split the second stage, pitting on lap 43, and Busch finished 10th with one point.
He inherited track position when the leaders pitted under the second stage break, then led six laps and spent the final stage battling AJ Allmendinger, who went on to win the race, and Ty Gibbs at the front of the field.
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The afternoon’s final restart occurred with 10 laps to go, Busch lining up on the front row with Allmendinger to his outside. The No. 8 came off the frontstretch chicane, which was the restart zone, sideways as he fought hard to get going with Allmendinger at the green flag but couldn’t hang on to the position.
“I would have had to have moved him, for sure,” Busch said. “I would have had to move him in a chicane where it would have made him have to stop, so then he wouldn’t come back and retaliate. But that’s a tool to use if you can get there and use it. I was hoping William [Byron] was going to use it, but he’s got too many wins already, so he didn’t care. It’s just racing.”
Busch earned 38 points Sunday afternoon. It was his best finish in six postseason races and his first top-five finish since Richmond at the end of July.
“I was trying to do what the car gave me; I was overstepping that a couple more times again, but I didn’t crash, which is good,” Busch said. “But if I was doing desperation stuff, I would have pile-drove everybody into Turn 1 on one of the restarts and opened the door for us. We were better than [Joey Logano] and everybody behind us, but [Ty Gibbs] and [Allmendinger] and [Byron] were probably on par if not just a tick better.”
It is the fourth time Busch has been eliminated in the Round of 12.
“It’s bittersweet,” Busch said. “I hate it. It rides on me. We came out there, we executed, we did the job that we knew we were capable of doing here, getting a third, and had a shot to win. The Lenovo Camaro was fast, the guys gave me a great piece, but unfortunately, just Texas and Talladega and not doing a…good job there and not scoring any points obviously killed us. Give those two to do over again, and we’re in the Round of 8.”