Busch Finding Speed Amid Last-Ditch Playoff Push

Kyle Busch in action at Michigan Int'l Speedway. (HHP/Jim Fluharty photo)

BROOKLYN, Mich. – After enduring a NASCAR Cup Series season that hasn’t gone according to plan by any stretch of the imagination, Kyle Busch finally found a bit of a groove Monday.

Busch captured a fourth-place finish in the rain-postponed conclusion to the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan Int’l Speedway, collecting his first top five since May at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.

Busch and the No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team rolled the dice on strategy and almost pulled off an upset win at the two-mile oval, but fell just short.

(Re-ordered prargraphs) It started when Busch and crew chief Randall Burnett made an audible call for a two-tire pit stop, as opposed to taking four tires, with 33 laps to go. From there, Busch’s pit crew executed a flawless 3.8 second stop, getting him out in front of pit cycle leaders William Byron, Chase Elliott and eventual winner Tyler Reddick.

The Las Vegas native fought off the leaders for seven laps, but ultimately was passed by Reddick, who had a tire advantage with a set of four fresh Goodyear Eagles.

Despite losing out on a shot to win, Busch hung around the top 10 and kept himself in contention among the lead draft until the very end.

“I wish I came out with about an eight-second lead. That might have helped a little bit,” Busch joked after the race. “We didn't quite have that gap. It kind of got us off cycle short, filling yesterday and being behind on fuel.

“Overall, we need just a little bit more out of our Lucas Oil Chevrolet. Missed a tenth [of a second] at each end, not quite being able to wrap the corner as fast as I needed to be able to run. I think flats and teens [were what the leaders were running] when those guys got me. I was running [38.]30s.”

Although he fell short of a win that would’ve catapulted him into the playoffs, Monday’s race still meant a lot to Busch’s season.

Before Michigan, Busch only had one top 10 (at the Chicago (Ill.) Street Race) since May’s Kansas Speedway event, where he finished eighth 12 races ago. He also had only led 15 laps or more in one race during that span, and that was at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., in June.

“Overall net positive on the weekend, being better with speed, being up front, having a shot. We ran in the top 10 all day,” he noted. “Really good call by Randall [Burnett] and the guys to get us those two tires on pit road, getting us more track position and try to hold them off as best we could.

“Overall, [a] net good day.

At Michigan, Busch led 24 laps, his most in a single race since Dover. The 39-year-old also snapped a streak of back-to-back DNF’s at Michigan in 2022 and ‘23.

Although the coming weeks for Busch remain filled with questions of if he’ll make the postseason, and if he’ll extend his record streak of winning at least one race in a season to 20 consecutive years, both he and Richard Childress Racing have momentum.

The next task to try and pull off an upset playoff berth: a date at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway, where RCR and Busch have both shown speed and been in contention for wins in the past.

“This is how we would expect to run. This is how we want to run. We want to run up front, [have] top 10s, [and] have opportunities to excel,” he said.

Busch forecasted himself to run around eighth for most of the day at Michigan. The end result was an improvement on that projection.

“[The good news is], we got a fourth out of it. Good pit calls helped us to be able to do that. Making a couple good moves on the late restart there got us that [finish].

“Overall, nothing can translate from today into Daytona or Darlington setup-wise, vehicle dynamics, that sort of stuff,” Busch continued. “[But it’s] good momentum rolling in the right direction; [we] just need to keep that going.”

Coverage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona begins Saturday night, Aug. 24 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.