Kyle Busch’s fifth-place finish in Chicago seemed unlikely when he was windshield-deep in the Turn 6 tire barrier on the second lap of the race, but fortune turned his way.
“It’s just unfortunate getting caught up in the barriers and going back that far, but we all dug in and gave it everything we had to rebound and come back,” Busch said. “I wish it was done more in the way Shane [van Gisbergen] was able to do it where I was passing guys and coming up from the back, back to the front, but I definitely lost confidence after putting it in the tire barrier in my braking zones for the rest of the day, and I had a lot of lockup issues today, too.
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“I don’t know what was going on with my brakes. (It was) different from (Saturday). I just could find not find the right rhythm with it until late. Probably the last 10, 15 laps I really felt like I was clicking some better times off and rolling forward.”
Turn 6 is a left-hander at the end of a high-speed straightaway, and Busch was along for the ride when he went for a long side into the tire barrier on a wet surface as his rear tires locked up on lap 2.
Despite the optics of the hit, Busch’s car suffered minimal damage. Busch didn’t even pit after being pulled out from the tire barriers and only came down pit road when the race restarted because his Richard Childress Racing team needed to replace some hood pins.
“I was just hopeful that the radiator wasn’t busted,” Busch said. “I guess this is an instance where I’m thankful these cars are built so tough because if it was the old car, I would not have made it. Well, maybe. I don’t know.
“It looked a lot similar to (Chase Elliott) and what he did at the Roval on one of those laps where he got in the tire barriers in Turn 1. It wasn’t too terrible of a hit. I knew I was going in – I was trying everything to get it crooked so I could hit it flat side, with my side, but I could not get it to rotate. Just augered it right on in there like a lawn dart.”
The incident dropped Busch to last place and he spent much of the afternoon without track position and buried deep in the field. When NASCAR officials made the decision after the second stage to shorten the distance of the race because of darkness, the outlook changed for Busch and his team.
Busch had already made a pit stop since the No. 8 team had a feeling darkness was going to come into play, so the decision by NASCAR played into him being able to stay on track when the majority of the field pitted to finally gain track position and attempt to make the finish. A rash of cautions in the final stage helped aided Busch’s cause.
“We had a hand dealt to us there late in the going where we thought about the race getting shortened and pitting and getting ahead of some of those guys,” Busch said. “So we did that and was able to flip the field and get ourselves back up front.
“(It was a) real good effort for us and our No.8 3CHI Chevy. Proud to come out of here with a top 5 and continue our top 5 strings on these road courses.”