Busch in position
Driver reaches top 30, now can take more risks in going for wins, title, Brant James writes,
Kevin Harvick had the luxury of racing with abandon. So did Joey Logano. Kyle Busch really didn’t. But he did anyway, until it wasn’t the wise move anymore. He still finished second.
The scary thought for Busch’s competitors approaching the final four regular-season races and entering the Chase for the Sprint Cup is that he really, officially, can go full-bore now. Because after winning four races since his return from a broken foot and leg and pressing extraordinarily hard to add another Sunday at Watkins Glen International, Busch finding another level would be threatening to anyone else’s championship hopes.
Especially if he continues to see the big picture through his windshield when the chase is over and the Chase begins.
Busch advanced to the 30th slot in driver points, fulfilling a prerequisite for any driver to qualify for NASCAR’s 10-race playoff. After sitting out the first 11 races while injured, he received a waiver from NASCAR, which requires drivers to attempt to qualify for all 26 regular-season races. Next, Busch began amassing points and wins in what still looked very much like a statistically improbable grope for the Chase. Wins were not a surprise. He now has multiple victories in seven of his 11 Cup seasons. But compiling 361 points to claim 30th place in 11 races has been impressive.
“For us to be in the top 30 right now, that obviously allows us to change our mind-set maybe a little bit here going forward,” Busch said. “We maybe could have played this race a little bit differently if we were like (Harvick), who had absolutely nothing to lose, and, lo and behold, they run out (of fuel) and come home third. We run out and come home 21st last week. (It was) just an overall good day for us.”
Certainly, Busch could fall out of the top 30 in the next four races, and the abandon that makes him a winner could undo him. But even finishing 36th and 43rd, respectively, at Dover International Speedway and Michigan International Speedway and running out of fuel while leading the last lap at Pocono Raceway, Busch seems unlikely to fade. Especially after the prudence he demonstrated Sunday.
So now the reins slowly can come off.
Busch charged into position to vie for a fifth win Sunday even after an untimely caution while he was leading sunk him to a seemingly untenable 21st with 30 laps left. Busch had muscled to the front past Brad Keselowski on lap 56, just before the yellow, and pitted while half the field, including Harvick and Matt Kenseth, stayed out after they pitted on lap 51. Busch’s blitz through traffic was extraordinary work on the 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course, and soon he had crew chief Adam Stevens reconsidering a victory strategy because they thought the first half of the field would need to pit for fuel. Harvick, with the luxury of two wins, could push. He ran out of fuel in the final turn and finished third. Logano, with the luxury of one victory, pushed, too, and won.
Harvick miraculously was able to nurse his fuel supply for the final 39 laps as Logano dogged him — “Made it a little bit further than what I thought it was going to,” Harvick crew chief Rodney Childers said — and Busch was unable to close the gap because Stevens had instructed him to save fuel in case of a green-whitecheckered finish.
“Everybody has their own goals, so theirs is, ‘We execute, we put ourselves in the top 30, we’re in the Chase,’ ” said Todd Gordon, Logano’s crew chief. “And I think (Stevens) did that correctly.” Busch thought so, too. “We couldn’t afford running out of gas like we did last week (while leading at Pocono) and taking home an even worse finish this week because of how many cars finish on the lead lap typically at a road course,” Busch said. “We’d be back in the 30s somewhere. I’m sure that was weighing on Adam’s mind on being able to save it and make it to the end and just playing it a little bit more cautious, which is fine.”
But now the need for cautiousness isn’t such a concern anymore. And that could be a luxury his competitors can hardly afford.