Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch both had a day to forget following separate on-track incidents of their own during The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, July 14, leaving their hopes of making the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs in jeopardy.
Chastain, who started in 19th place but was mired in 31st place after the first stage period on Lap 30 saw his race go south on Lap 53 when he slid sideways and hit the outside wall in Turn 3 while running in 21st place. Then while trying to nurse his car through the frontstretch, Chastain locked up his front tires and ended up going straight into the outside wall in Turn 1, which resulted in his No. 1 Busch Light Peach Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry sustaining more right-side damage. Despite driving back to pit road, the damage would be enough to conclude Chastain’s event in his pit stall and in 36th place, the next-to-last spot and strapped with his third DNF of the 2024 season.
With the result, Chastain, who came into Pocono 53 points above the top-16 cutline to make the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs, is only 27 points above the cutline as he holds the 16th and final transfer spot into the Playoffs ahead of Bubba Wallace with five regular-season events remaining on this year’s calendar. Chastain, the 2022 championship runner-up, is currently one of four competitors currently scored inside the cutline despite being winless through 21 scheduled events in 2024, including Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher. His last series victory occurred during the 2023 season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway this past November. Currently, Chastain’s best result in 2024 is a fourth-place run generated at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March as he attempts to make his third consecutive appearance as a Playoff competitor.
“I just spun out,” Chastain said while describing the incident after being released from the infield care center. “I just flat spun out. We were all sliding around, but I just spun out. It felt like it happened in slow motion. Yeah, obviously frustrated with myself, but can’t take it back now.”
Compared to Chastain who remains above the cutline and in the position of making the Playoffs based on points, Kyle Busch’s 2024 Playoff hopes sit solely on winning one of the remaining five regular-season events as he trails the cutline by triple digits with few races and little time to gain the lost points week by week.
Busch’s long afternoon at Pocono occurred before the event’s start as his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team had to address an oil leak discovered on Busch’s Camaro ZL1 entry. Despite making the repairs in the garage stall before the car was pushed to pit lane for the starting grid, Busch, who qualified in 24th place, dropped to the rear of the field due to the unapproved adjustment.
Once he took the green flag, Busch managed to methodically carve his way to 20th place when the first stage period concluded on Lap 30. Lining up in 14th place for the start of the second stage period on Lap 35, Busch, who along with teammate Austin Dillon spent extra time on pit road to have the brakes serviced during a caution period that started on Lap 52, would fall back and be mired within the top 30 despite remaining on the lead lap when the stage concluded on Lap 95.
Being mired in the mid-pack region when the final stage commenced with 60 laps remaining, Busch, who would line up in 16th place during another restart period with 40 laps remaining, was then trying to block Corey LaJoie through the frontstretch as a pyramid of competitors racing him were fanning out to multiple lanes. With both Busch and LaJoie making contact during the process, LaJoie would then veer right, clip and send Busch for a spin towards the bottom of the track entering Turn 1. Busch’s car then came spinning back across the track, where he would tag Ryan Preece into Harrison Burton and collide sideways into Ricky Stenhouse Jr., which crumbled the right side of Busch’s No. 8 zone/GetGo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry. Despite trying to nurse his damaged car back to pit road, Busch then parked his car below the apron, removed the steering wheel and lowered his window net as he climbed out uninjured and had his car towed back to the garage.
The accident not only left Busch strapped with his fifth DNF of the 2024 season, but it also left the two-time Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, with his 10th result outside the top 20 through 21-scheduled starts and his sixth over the previous eight races. In addition, Busch, who remains winless this season and came into Pocono trailing the top-16 cutline by 98 points, now trails the cutline by 102 points with five regular-season events remaining on the schedule. Busch’s last Cup victory occurred at World Wide Technology Raceway in June 2023 as he attempts to extend his current-record streak of winning at least one race a season to 20 consecutive years. Busch is also attempting to make his 17th career appearance in the Playoffs, with his last Playoff absence occurring in 2012.
After being released from the infield care center, Busch minced his words and offered very little detail on his perspective over the incident with LaJoie, who finished 19th.
“I just want to give thanks to all of our partners, everybody at RCR, ECR, zone, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Lucas Oil, Chevrolet.. everybody that supports us. We’re having the opportunity to go out there and have some fun; try to continue to work on our program and build everything up. It’s just unfortunate circumstances. Thank you to Rowdy Nation, all the fans and everybody for their continued support. We’ll go back to work and get ready for Indianapolis.”
With Pocono Raceway in the rearview mirror, both Chastain and Busch shift their attention to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the return of the Brickyard 400 and to regain the lost ground spilled from the Tricky Triangle in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
Busch enters the upcoming Brickyard 400 as a former winner of the event, with the Las Vegas native achieving back-to-back Brickyard 400 victories in 2015 and 2016. Since then, he has finished no higher than sixth over his last seven trips to Indianapolis as he attempts to become the fourth competitor to achieve at least three Brickyard 400 victories. Meanwhile, Chastain has yet to win at Indianapolis as he is scheduled to make his seventh start at the iconic venue this season. His current best result at Indy is 17th place, which occurred twice between 2020 and 2023. He nearly won at the Indianapolis road course venue in 2022 but used the off-track access road to move atop the leaderboard, where he would settle in second place behind Tyler Reddick before he was assessed a 30-second time penalty, which dropped him to 27th place in the final running order.
The bid to make the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for both Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch continues with the return of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 21, and air at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
