Busch says 'we're done' after Dover engine woes

DOVER, Del. -- The Sprint Cup Series is about to find out how much Kyle Busch has matured in two years.

Because for the second time in three editions of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, after two of 10 races, Busch finds himself in last position; and the sight is brutal.

"At this point, it doesn't matter [if I think I have a chance to win the championship]," Busch said midway through the Camping World RV 400 after changing clothes in his hauler and coming out to meet the press. "Same thing happened two years ago -- exact same thing: Wrecked at Loudon, blew up here. So where did we end up [in 2006] -- dead last."

An engine failure that took 30-something laps to become terminal put Busch's No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the trailer after only 172 of 400 laps (watch video). It was only his second DNF of the year and came one day after he won his record-extending 19th race of the season in NASCAR's three national tours, Saturday's Nationwide Series 200-lapper.

The vital signs between the two years, two races into the Chase are similar. In 2006 Busch's No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was 224 points out of first after finishing 38th and 40th in the first two events.

Last week at New Hampshire a broken Heim joint, followed by a crash as he scrambled to make up time, put Busch 34th at the finish, and eighth in the Chase. As Sunday unfolded at Dover International Speedway, Busch had hope as, after 140 laps he'd picked up three spots in the standings while running ninth in the race.

But by mid-afternoon, the only thing that differentiated Busch's garage stall from a hospital emergency room after a failed resuscitation was that there was no blood on the slew of rags strewn about Busch's Toyota's engine bay.

And while the patient at the moment was just as inextricably dead -- and in Busch's case last in both the Camping World RV 400 and the Chase, 210 points behind leader Carl Edwards -- the striking difference between a grieving family and Busch's JGR Toyota crew is the latter still has hope, even if Busch couldn't bring himself to say it.

"They've got a lot to prove, that this year wasn't a fluke," crew chief Steve Addington said of his team. "We're going to go out and try to win races. We can take some chances, do some different things now and have some fun and finish this year up.

"If we go out and win races and guys start having bad luck we can be right back in this thing. We're not out of it. We're not saying we're dead. We're going to keep on kicking." (Continued)