BUSCH TRYING TO STAVE OFF A KO

Kyle Busch, to be clear, was only venting when he said he’d be knocked out of the playoffs this round. The reigning Cup champion insisted he was frustrated and flippant when he wrote off his season.

“I wouldn’t be continuing to go to the racetrack each and every week and pouring my heart and soul into this and taking time away from my family if I didn’t care,” Busch said. “That’s tonguein-cheek talk and should be known as that, coming from me, obviously.

“It is what it is, and we’re going to go on this week and fight like hell and try to make it through.”

Here he is on the verge of elimination headed into today’s race on the hybrid road course-oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Busch is 21 points below the cutoff line and could become the first reigning champion eliminated in the round of 12 when four are trimmed from the field.

At stake is his bid to become the first driver to win consecutive titles since Jimmie

Johnson won five straight from 2006-2010. Busch also would lose his five-year streak of advancing to the championship race, but even worse, his run of at least one win every year since his 2005 rookie season is in serious danger.

Busch doesn’t need to win on the “Roval” to advance, but there’s only five races remaining for him to improve his season. Just one win will tie him for third on the alltime list at 16 consecutive seasons with Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace and Johnson.

Only Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch, Kyle’s older brother, are locked into the round of eight.

Elsewhere

AJ Allmendinger splashed his way through a torrential rainstorm that turned Charlotte Motor Speedway into a slip-and-slide to win the Xfinity Series race on the hybrid road course-oval “Roval.”

Valtteri Bottas ended Lewis Hamilton’s run of five consecutive Formula One pole positions by claiming the top spot on the grid for today’s Eifel Grand Prix at Nurburg, Germany.