USA TODAY International Edition
Struggling Busch has history on his side
Defending champ worse off last year
Kyle Busch crashed 52 laps into the Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway last June and finished 43rd. He slumped to 39th in the standings, and his noble effort to return from a major injury after 11 missed races and extensive rehabilitation to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup seemed over.
Then he won the next event at Sonoma Raceway and three of the next four races — at Kentucky Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He climbed into the top 30 in driver points two races later to check the next box for Chase eligibility and went on to win his first title at NASCAR’s highest level.
So sustaining a rare engine failure and careening around half of the 2- mile oval with his No. 18 Toyota erupting in conflagration Sunday shouldn’t be overly worrisome other than the part about the heat and the fire.
Although Busch has ensured his entry into the Chase with wins at Martinsville Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway, and although his Joe Gibbs Racing team has been the most successful in the series this season with seven wins in 15 races, Busch left Michigan with concerns again. Specifically, that these kind of finishes have become a full- fledged pattern in his self- described “dismal month.”
Busch crashed out at Dover International Speedway and in the next race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, finished 10 laps down at Pocono Raceway and then combusted at Michigan. As in finishes of 30th, 33rd, 31st and 40th in succession, with three DNFs ( did not finish). And although he has 11 races before the Chase begins, summer is supposed to be a time for experimentation and honing for power teams, not groping for equilibrium with the less- accomplished folk.
“It’s unfortunate, not just today, but, man, the last four races have been really, really bad,” Busch said. “It’s a good thing we started off the season as good as we did with a lot of top- fives and we had three wins so it got us a good start and a good foundation. But we have to get this luck turned around and get going in the right direction and get ourselves back to where we feel we need to be.”
And although Busch has three wins and nine top- fives in 15 starts — the type of statistics that propel championship drives deep into the Chase — there’s the matter of the six finishes of 25th or worse, the likes of which dash hopes in the new elimination format.
“We had a lot of good fortune go our way at the beginning part of the season, I guess,” Busch said. “We still had blown tires that hurt us, but we’re either topfour or we’re bottom- four. There is no absolute in between for us.”
Busch seems somewhat consoled that his race cars remain speedy under crew chief Adam Stevens. Engineering in speed is difficult but controllable. But misfortune, he hopes, will eradicate itself.
“Our cars are fast,” Busch said. “Adam and the guys have done a great job each and every week; ( Toyota Racing Development) power has been great. Just unfortunate circumstances have been coming our way a lot lately.”
Perhaps he can just write off Sunday as another unhappy day at Michigan. Busch has finished 31st or worse in five of his last six races at the track, the top finish an 11th- place result in August. Maybe he can remember back to a year ago, when another bad situation got better quickly.
This time at least there’s a safety net.