Jeff Busch: Problems plague those namesakes

FONTANA, Calif. -- While Jeff Gordon salvaged a top-10 finish Sunday after getting nailed with a speeding penalty on pit road, three other Chase contenders -- all with last names starting with the letter B -- saw their championship hopes blown apart by bad luck.

No fewer than eight drivers were within 85 points of leader Jimmie Johnson heading into the weekend at Auto Club Speedway. But at the conclusion of Sunday's Pepsi Max 400, just Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Gordon could continue to claim that distinction.

Busch woes

Engine problems bring a premature end to Kyle Busch's race, and Chase hopes.

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A solid finish for Kurt Busch gets slammed when he and David Ragan wreck.

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Kyle Busch was in thick of contention for much of the first half of Sunday's race but ended up having to make a second pit stop when a ventilation hose for his rear gear came loose. That put him 28th on the restart, but he quickly worked his way back into the top 10.

However, his day ended prematurely while running fifth on Lap 155 when smoke began pouring from underneath his No. 18 Toyota. Busch brought the car slowly down pit road and made the left turn into the garage area, knowing that a 35th-place finish had seriously damaged his Chase chances.

"There was just a weird pop off of Turn 2 one time when I got to the throttle wide-open and it blew the back of the hood seal between the hood and the cowl," Busch said. "So I don't know what happened. I said, 'Well, that didn't sound too good. I'm not sure if it's going to make it the rest of the race.' Apparently it didn't."

When the caution came out for Busch's misfortune, Gordon and the rest of the leaders headed for pit road on the next circuit. Gordon admitted his dashboard indicator showed he was close to the pit road speed limit but he assumed he had some margin for error. According to NASCAR officials, he didn't.

"Two red lights, and I would have been letting off," Gordon said. "One red light, I do it all the time. Usually the way we have it [set] is if it flashes two, then you've got to back off. But at one, you're fine.

"We were just obviously too tight in the tolerances and I pushed it too far."

That resulted in Gordon having to restart as the final car on the lead lap. However, he worked his way from 28th to ninth by the finish, allowing him to stay within 85 points of Johnson with six races remaining.

Kurt Busch, on the other hand, seemed to have finally solved handling issues just in time to post a top-10 finish.

"With 20 [laps] to go, it looked like we were going to come out of here with a solid top-10 finish," Busch said. "We fought the car being too loose or too tight most of the day. Just a half-pound air pressure change would make the car go from sideways loose to really tight."

Busch was racing in traffic and appeared to be closing ground on the leaders when he tangled with David Ragan just seven laps from the end.

"He just washed right up the track and pinned us into the wall," Busch said. "The left-front tire blew and we had to pit for repairs.

Despite several stops to repair the damage, Busch was able to stay on the lead lap.

"We were running wounded out there on the last restart, but still made it back up from 30th to finish 21st. It could have been a really solid day here, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

Busch's deficit to Johnson doubled from 70 to 140 points, heading into next weekend's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Jeff Burton also struggled Sunday. After starting 15th, he had worked his way just outside of the top 10 during the first long green flag run of the day. But the handling started to go away on his Chevrolet, leaving him battling for the rest of the race just to stay in contention. He eventually finished 23rd and is now eighth in the standings, 177 points behind.

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