Busch is poised in defeat, but sees writing on wall

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kyle Busch won't be leaving Hendrick Motorsports until the end of the season, but if the closing laps of Saturday night's Pepsi 400 are any indication, he's already the "outsider looking in."

"The bliss is over at Hendrick Motorsports for Kyle Busch," he said, his voice hardly revealing emotion minutes after losing the race to Jamie McMurray by the width of a fender.

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On the inside of the track and needing a push to get past McMurray for the lead with one lap to go, Busch looked to his right and saw Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon. Unfortunately for Busch, Gordon was busy working with the No. 26 Ford in the outside lane.

Thankfully, older brother Kurt came to the rescue as Kyle Busch grabbed a slight advantage, only to have McMurray pull ahead by .005 seconds at the line.

Climbing from the car, Busch hinted that he expected more assistance from his own team.

"We just didn't quite have the teammate situation worked out [Saturday night]," Busch said.

When pressed on the issue later, Busch didn't back down from his comments. In fact, he added fuel to the fire, leaving one wondering if we could be seeing the beginnings of a messy divorce.

"Walking down pit road, [when] saying congratulations to Jeff Gordon, I got blown off," Busch said. "I guess I'm the outsider looking in now and I'll probably not be invited to the team meetings next week."

Interestingly enough -- and perhaps most telling -- Gordon had glowing words for McMurray in his post-race interview but failed to mention his teammate's second-place effort.

Busch was particularly miffed that with Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears all running in the lead group, he found no comfort in familiarity.

"There were a few opportunities for them to get behind me at the end," Busch said. "[Gordon] especially, we were running there behind him and he got passed by [McMurray].

"I was on the inside lane and Jeff was clear a lap later and could have helped us and gotten three Hendrick cars in a row but chose not to do so. He chose to stay up high and help a Roush car."

In a bit of irony, Kurt -- who finished third -- went through a similar situation at Roush before he landed the ride at Penske. Kurt had a bit of advice for his sibling.

"For Kyle, the advice I would give is to understand that you're out there working as an individual," he said. "Hendrick is fielding your cars. There's not much you can do to help the other guys so therefore there's not much you should do to expect help from the other guys."

Maybe it's being blown out of proportion, but Kyle Busch sounded like a man already resigned to having to deal with a difficult situation for the near term.

"I guess it's a situation you really don't want to have to go through, but you do," he said. "We'll get through it. We'll be fine."

For Saturday night's snub -- perceived or otherwise -- Kyle said he believes he still has the support of his team. But he issued what appeared to be a veiled warning that things best not change with 18 races to go.

"All I need are my team guys, the crew chief and the team, the guys in the engine shop, the chassis shop and the body shop, everybody gives me the same equipment they've given me the whole time," Busch said. "If that keeps coming my way, we'll be fine. I'll be just fine, the team will be just fine.

"But as soon as something changes and somebody gets an order to make the thing blow up on Lap 50, then we're going downhill. Hopefully that won't happen."

Sitting there, calmly answering questions about a situation that clearly troubled him more than he let on, Busch appeared almost defiant.

"We'll make the most of this situation, make it into the Chase and hopefully be able to challenge for the championship at the end of the year and beat them all out and say, 'I told you so,' " he said.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.