Race Weekend Central

Kyle Busch’s Chase Chances Take Hard Hit At Michigan

For the second time in four races since Kyle Busch’s return to Sprint Cup competition, the No. 18 has been sent to the garage with crash damage. Could he have been an innocent victim of Mother Nature?

Sunday’s race at Michigan was dominated by rain; the field was stopped three times in the opening 60 laps for precipitation. Shortly following a restart on lap 52 Busch, who restarted third was racing brother Kurt off turn 4 before the M&M’s Toyota snapped sideways.

As quick as the car turned off-kilter, it snapped, resulting in a hard hit into the SAFER barrier right-front corner first. Luckily, the field behind fanned out and avoided any further damage.

Busch can’t say the same about his Chase hopes. The driver came into Sunday a massive 151 points behind Trevor Bayne, who inhabits the 30th position in points. That’s where Busch must climb to be eligible to make the postseason – while also winning a race in the process.

Busch grabbed a top 10 last week at Pocono Raceway, a nice recovery following his crash at Dover. However, this recent incident leaves the driver in a deeper hole to dig out of.

 

About the author

Growing up in Easton, Pa., Zach Catanzareti has grown his auto racing interest from fandom to professional. Joining Frontstretch in 2015, Zach enjoys nothing more than being at the track, having covered his first half-season of 18 races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2017. With experience behind the wheel, behind the camera and in the media center, he thrives on being an all-around reporter.

Sign up for the Frontstretch Newsletter

A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.

2 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
JohnQ

Couldn’t happen to bigger cup hole. Maybe Kryle needs to stick to stealing lunch money from the second tier series drivers. Maybe the entire organization does, they haven’t done much in the big leagues lately.

kb

I feel the same way, but not for your reasons. I don’t feel he should be in “The Chase”, and if this helps my thoughts along and deflate the hype business..who am I to complain.

Share via