For multiple laps, Kyle Busch tried to go up the track to start a second groove and it eventually put him into the wall at Texas. Busch was running top-5 coming out of the green flag pit stops and ensuing cautions of Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola, and Todd Gilliland. This is a tough NASCAR track.
We saw this in the Xfinity Series. Going up the track too soon at Texas will cost you. It gradually builds that second groove and Kyle Busch pushed it a bit too hard. He went out and tried to get up on that groove a little too soon.
Busch noted to his team on the radio that his car didn’t feel right and they claimed that was due to that high groove. Well, this is how that experiment ended.
After the wreck, Kyle Busch did his best to avoid making more damage. It was a tough situation for Busch to be in. This was supposed to be a race where he would be able to pick up points and maybe make a strong push for the Round of 8.
Now, Busch will likely be down a bunch of points. His team will try to get repairs made, but even reversing didn’t help. Busch believes his car is “killed.”
A hard way to end your day at Texas, if that is the end of his day. Stage 1 couldn’t end soon enough for some of these drivers.
Kyle Busch faces unsure future in the Round of 12
The thing is, Kyle Busch knew full well that this was possible. He was never under the illusion that the Round of 12 would be easy. He’s been around too long for all of that. Ahead of the Texas race, Busch talked about that uncertainty.
We’re talking, Texas and Talladega back-to-back and then the Charlotte Roval. Anything could happen.
“Realistically I mean, I have no clue. I have high confidence here just based off of how the 8 car was last year, how the 24 car was here last year. So, we based most of our stuff off of that. Just kind of jump in and go and hopefully it’s good and it’s fast and it’s where we need it to be. Then, Talladega it’s a crapshoot, it’s luck. Go read my postrace presser I can’t tell you how many times I said we probably just got lucky today.
“The Roval, yeah I mean last year I ran third there and there was a tire strategy at the end there, we took tires we were able to make it work for us. I feel like our road course program has been strong, our results at Watkins Glen weren’t indicative of that because of coming to pit road, the light turning on, having to go back out, cycling to the back not being able to pass as well as you want to come back up through. Lots of stuff. I would like to think that normal races and normal circumstances, we can make it through this round.”
Today, Kyle Busch got unlucky. He went for that higher groove a little too soon. Eventually, it came back to bite him.