Kyle Busch crashed 52 laps into the Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway last June and finished 43rd. He slumped in 39th in the drivers’ standings and his noble effort to return from a major injury after 11 missed races and extensive rehabilitation to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup seemed over.
Then he won the next event at Sonoma Raceway, then three of the next four races — at Kentucky Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway — climbed into the top 30 in driver points two weeks later to check the next box for Chase eligibility and went on to win his first title at NASCAR’s highest level.
So sustaining a rare engine failure and careening around half of the 2-mile oval with his No. 18 Toyota erupting in conflagration on Sunday shouldn’t be overly worrisome other than the part about the heat and the fire. But although Busch has already assured his entry into the Chase with wins this season at Martinsville Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway, and although his Joe Gibbs Racing team has been the most successful in the series this season with seven wins in 15 races, Busch left Michigan Sunday with concerns again. Specifically, that these kind of finishes have become a full-fledged pattern in his self-described “dismal month.”
Busch crashed out a Dover International Speedway, again the next race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, finished 10 laps down at Pocono Raceway, and then combusted at Michigan. As in finishes of 30th, 33rd, 31st and 40th — with three DNFs — in succession. And although he has 11 races before the playoffs begin, summer is supposed to be a time for experimentation and honing for power teams, not groping for equilibrium with the less accomplished folk.
“It’s unfortunate, not just today, but man the last four races have been really, really bad,” Busch said. “It’s a good thing we started off the season as good as we did with a lot of top-fives and we had three wins so it got us a good start and a good foundation, but we have to get this luck turned around and get going in the right direction and get ourselves back to where we feel we need to be.”
And although Busch has three wins and nine top-5s in 15 starts — the type of statistics that propel championship drives deep into the Chase — there’s the matter of the six finishes of 25th or worse, the likes of which dash hopes in the new elimination format.
“We had a lot of good fortune go our way at the beginning part of the season I guess,” Busch said. “We still had blown tires that hurt us, but we’re either top-four or we’re bottom four. There is no absolute in between for us.”
Busch seems somewhat consoled that his race cars remain speedy with crew chief Adam Stevens. Engineering in speed is difficult but controllable but misfortune, he hopes, will eradicate itself.
“Our cars are fast,” Busch said. “Adam and the guys have done a great job each and every week, [Toyota Racing Development] power has been great, just unfortunate circumstances have been coming our way a lot lately.”
Perhaps he can just write off Sunday as another unhappy day in the Irish Hills. Busch has finished 31st or worse in five of his last six races at Michigan, the top finish an 11th-place result last August. Maybe he can remember back to a year ago, when another bad situation got better quickly.
This time at least, there’s a safety net.
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