Busch Sees Daytona Glory Slip Through His Grasp

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

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kyle Busch saw his turn of fate a half lap away. His terrible, horrible, no good, very bad NASCAR Cup Series season was about to be a distant memory Saturday night at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Then, in an instant, his hope and opportunity faded away to nothing.

Busch was running first, manning the inside line in overtime on the final lap of the Coke Zero Sugar 400, and all he needed to do was to get back to the checkered flag first to end a career-long 45-race winless drought.

Instead, second-running Harrison Burton’s Wood Brothers Racing Ford steamed up the outside lane with a strong push from rookie Parker Retzlaff, snatching Daytona glory from Busch’s fingertips.

Busch, a Chevrolet driver for Richard Childress Racing, was the victim of a double whammy in that moment.

On one hand, a win would’ve erased the heartache of his dismal year-to-date, extended his record streak to 20 consecutive years with a Cup Series win, and put him into the playoffs. That didn’t happen.

To make matters even tougher, a manufacturer teammate in Retzlaff – whose No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet was powered by an ECR [Earnhardt-Childress Racing] engine – pushed Burton past Busch for the win.

The 39-year-old’s near-victory came up a half lap short and leaves a bundle of questions in its aftermath.

What if Busch had made a different move earlier, or thrown a bold block in front of Burton when the run was coming? Or, what if Retzlaff had gone with him instead of giving Burton the push to victory lane?

All were thoughts that remained unanswered at the end of 400 miles at the World Center of Racing.

“We just finished second. It's all good. We were really lucky tonight to miss a few of those crashes,” said Busch, looking at the bigger picture after the race. “Just really proud of everybody; [crew chief] Randall Burnett and all the guys at RCR and ECR did a great job, and brought a fast car [to the track].

“Was hoping we could get those free No. 8 specials on Monday, get some [Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen] chicken tenders rolling, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Busch had swung at the proverbial piñata in recent weeks, trying to get his first win in more than a year, dating back to World Wide Technology Raceway last June.

Last Monday, he finished fourth at Michigan Int’l Speedway after leading 24 laps, and led eight laps Saturday night – just not the one that counted most.

Afterward, Retzlaff gave some insight into his lane choice for the final restart and why he ultimately didn’t go to the inside as Busch’s pusher for the two-lap shootout.

“I wanted to take the bottom with [Busch] and push the No. 8, but then I just didn’t want to lose myself a row and have no shot to win the race,” said Retzlaff. “I didn’t want to push a Ford over a Chevy to win, but I knew I needed to get [Burton] clear of Busch to make it a race between me and him to the start-finish line.”

Retzlaff’s plan to take the bottom behind Busch, and hope third-place Christopher Bell took the top lane behind Burton fell through. Bell elected the inside as the pusher for his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, which forced the 21-year-old Retzlaff’s hand.

“I felt like I had to give these guys at Beard Motorsports a shot to win,” he said.

Retzlaff then faded after banging doors with Bell in the tri-oval and getting squeezed up into the wall coming to the checkered flag, but still captured his first Cup Series top 10 in just his second career start by crossing the line seventh.

Busch, however, was left with no momentum and no shot in the final corner.

“It seemed like the energy broke up off of turn two and the No. 20 [Bell] got crooked and just wasn’t on my rear bumper the way we needed to be,” he explained. “The outside lane just went by. I wanted to get up in front of the No. 21 [Burton] because I knew the momentum was coming there. But I knew the No. 20 was a better friend.

“Short of flat-out wrecking him [Burton], there was nothing else I could do.”

Now, Busch’s last shot at a playoff-making win is in the regular season finale at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Sunday, Sept. 1. He had two finishes inside the top 11 with RCR last year at Darlington, but last won at the Track Too Tough to Tame in 2008.

His other task: he has 11 more races to keep his record streak of seasons with a Cup Series win alive. Though Busch’s back is against the wall, he’s been close to victory lane in the last two weeks, but yet so far at the same time.

The two-time Cup Series champion and Las Vegas native remains 20th in points, with no points scenario to make the postseason cut. Saturday night was Busch’s second Daytona top 10 at with RCR, and he’s led laps in every race on the 2.5-mile oval since joining the organization in 2023.

“We'll take this. Got a good little stretch going with these last three weeks; I just hope we can do what we need to do next week [and win at Darlington],” Busch admitted.

Broadcast coverage of the 75th running of the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington, the regular season finale for the NASCAR Cup Series, begins Sunday night, Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.