Kyle Busch continues Charlotte success with strong top five
[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”246″]
[/media-credit]With every lap and every race Kyle Busch runs at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, it becomes one of his better racetracks.
Good news if Busch plans to contend for the championship since Charlotte is not only in the Chase but several other mile-and-a-half tracks are as well. Busch and his No. 18 M&M’s team continue to improve their program and Sunday night was another step in the right direction.
After leading 55 laps and spending nearly all 400 laps in the top-10, Busch came home with a third place finish. In the last two Charlotte races Busch hasn’t finished worse than third and has led 166 laps. His last nine races are even more impressive: besides a wreck in the Coke 600 last year, Busch hasn’t finished worse than eighth and has four third place finishes.
The only thing missing is a win.
“Man, I want to win at Charlotte so bad,” said Busch when asked about it. “This stinks – second, third, fourth every single time here. It’s a little frustrating being able to finish in the top five like that all the time when you are that close.
“It’s also good to finish like that. We just need to carry on that momentum. This a good race for us so we can bring back some good notes for when we come back in October.”
The finish marks the 10th time Busch has finished in the top-10 in his 17 starts at Charlotte. But for all the success that he’s earned there with wins in the Camping World Truck Series (4) and the Nationwide Series (6), it hasn’t carried over – yet.
He and his team though did many things right during the Coca-Cola 600. His car was one of the few that stayed fast during day and into the dark night, not fading off and needing many adjustments.
After starting 21st he quickly found a comfortable spot in the top-10 and the only concern for the team was keeping up with the changing track conditions. Every time he came to the attention of his crew on pit road they never flinched and quickly got him back out onto the track.
With the race going into long green flag runs, that certainly helped. At times it appeared his car was better on shorter runs before losing positions the longer a run went on. According to Busch though, a driver could then search around on track and make a line work where others weren’t.
“It took so long for the cars to slow down to a certain point that then you could make speed up on the top side,” Busch said. “I could do that but it just took so long in the run to get to that point. If you went up there too early, you’d lose spots.
“I did that a couple times today. It’s 600 miles here. It’s the Coke 600 – that’s what you get.”
The finish moves Busch to eighth in points and while he would certainly like to win, he knows getting locked in the Chase is a priority. The way the month of May has been going, he’s hasn’t finished outside the top four, Busch is putting up a strong fight for a Chase spot.
It’s a good change for a team who found themselves behind when the season started. Not performing to standard and leaving many questioning if something was wrong. Now they’ve moved from 16th to the top-10 in points.
Busch loves what he sees from behind the wheel. His team is getting stronger, the cars are getting faster and they’re closing in on what they need to win.
“I think we’re good,” said Busch about his team. “We’re definitely a contender each and every week. We’re just not winners yet. I wish we knew what it was to get us to that point. There’s just a little bit of something lacking – whether it’s speed or whether it’s longevity in the runs.
“It seems like we can have one or the other and we have to put it all together. The guys did a great job – Denny [Hamlin] finishing second, we run third so that’s really good for us. We’ll move on and go to Dover and see what we can get there.”
The Final Word – Things really do go better with Coke, according to Kahne
[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]Okay, maybe they are right, whomever they might be. 600 miles might be too long a race, but the final 70 of the 400 laps provided some pretty good action. The Coca Cola 600 gave Kasey Kahne his first win as a Hendrick driver, his 13th of his Cup career, three of which have come in NASCAR’s Charlotte crown jewel event. Not a bad way to celebrate his 300th race.
Kasey might not be in the top ten just yet, but the victory has him sitting in the final Chase place as we speak. Brad Keselowski, who was fifth on Sunday, has the other spot reserved for winners, while the usual suspects continue to hold down positions of their own. Okay, as long as the usual suspects do not include Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, or Kurt Busch. Bowyer could still make it on points, but the way things are going the others will need wins between now and Richmond. When it was over, the top ten in the standings were the top ten on the track, with the exception of Jimmy Johnson, Tony Stewart, and the 12th place Martin Truex, Jr. Their places were taken by Kahne, Keselowski, and Jeff Gordon, in 7th.
Back in the day, some drivers would win a race by a number of laps, not seconds. We had a taste of that this weekend, as only nine cars ran the full 400 laps. If it weren’t for a few debris calls to bunch them up, it could have even fewer. To say that Ned Jarrett’s 1965 Southern 500 win, by 19 miles over Buck Baker, was a race is like saying a confrontation between Mike Tyson and my sister would be considered a fight. On second thought, I don’t think Cindy would kick his ass too badly.
Stewart, who would wind up 25th and three laps down, got tagged coming into the pits by Keselowski. Smoke backed up, did a little spin to turn the car around before smoking them up to perform a little sideways shuffle to get his car back into position for servicing. As for Keselowski, he spent some time paying less attention to his driving and more on getting his crew to tell Mr. Stewart that it was an accident, he was sorry, and that he did not want to be sent flying into the fence.
Flying down the track was Johnson’s gas man. Johnson finished a lap down in 11th, but he could have done better if not for one pit stop. Jimmie pulled out, but the gas can did not. Brandon Harder left the pits like a toddler trying to walk a Great Dane on a leash, sending the big fella flying, flipping, and bouncing. Helmets became a part of the crew’s attire in 2002, but I’m still not sure how much padding there is in those fire retardant suits. My guess is, not enough.
They move over to Dover as the road show heads north to Delaware. Bowyer will be trying to move up, Edwards will be trying to stay where he is, and others will be hunting down a checkered flag. Favorites on Sunday, based on history, would include Johnson, Edwards, and Gordon, while the Busch brothers, Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle have wins there in recent years. In short, the guy who wins probably won’t need it was bad as some of the rest, unless his name is Jeff. Enjoy the week.
