Kyle Busch could hardly have picked a better time for one of his worst races of the season.
Busch had a disastrous showing at the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway just a few days after it appeared he had the inside track to his first Sprint Cup.
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After winning eight races en route to earning the top seed in the Chase for the Cup, Busch suffered a 34th-place finish on Sunday — all because a $30 part of the No. 18 car’s suspension broke.
In a few hours, Busch went from atop the Chase for the Cup leaderboard to eighth, 74 points behind Carl Edwards and two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson.
“I’m surprised that the points leader [finished] that far back,” said Greg Biffle, who won Sunday’s race. “I knew he was going to finish bad when he was two laps down, but that can happen with the Chase — we all know that.”
Busch’s deficit is not insurmountable. But instead of defending his lead, he must find a way to make up ground on seven of NASCAR’s best drivers.
That’s not going to be easy.
“The 12 guys that are in here, they are all capable,” Biffle said. “All those guys — any one of them can win this title, and any one of them is capable of winning every single week that we show up at the track.”
Sunday’s race was a perfect example — eight of the top-10 finishers were from the field of 12 drivers who qualified for the Chase for the Cup. If that trend continues, the only chance Busch has to climb back into the championship picture will be to show up each week with a consistent car, a lot of luck and no more mistakes.
“He’s certainly not out of it,” said Biffle, “as long as he doesn’t self-destruct.”
Indeed. It is imperative Busch controls his emotions. He was reportedly irate in radio communications with his team, and with his history of having a quick temper, maturity will only be another obstacle for him to overcome.
But crew chief Steve Addington is confident Busch will perform better, beginning with the Camping World RV 400 at Dover International Speedway at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
“It’s one of those things you can’t do anything about,” Addington said. “We’ll just have to go back and re-evaluate.”
Still, Busch is in a deep hole after learning a valuable lesson in New Hampshire: A driver can’t win the NASCAR title in the first Chase for the Cup race, but he can go a long way toward losing it.
SPRINT CUP STANDINGS
1. Carl Edwards 5,220
2. Jimmie Johnson 5,220
3. Greg Biffle 5.190
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5,170
5. Jeff Burton 5,170
6. Denny Hamlin 5,148
7. Tony Stewart 5,147
8. Kyle Busch 5,146
9. Clint Bowyer 5,137
10. Kevin Harvick 5,134
11. Jeff Gordon 5,121
12. Matt Kenseth 5,043
Get up to speed on the latest in NASCAR — listen to Wilson’s Race Report every weeknight at 8:20 on 93.1 WPOC.
