RELATED: Full race results | Keselowski holds off Busch to win at Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS – Kyle Busch climbed out of his fourth-place finishing No. 18 M&Ms Toyota and despite being passed for the lead with only six laps remaining in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it was evident he will leave his hometown more encouraged than frustrated.
His Joe Gibbs Racing team had struggled finding speed much of the weekend but he worked his way to the front of the field Sunday even after starting the race from the 23rd position.
And his third top-five in as many races this season keeps the reigning series champion atop the Sprint Cup Series standings by six points over Sunday’s third-place finisher Jimmie Johnson.
“We were really, really bad this whole weekend, horrible,” Busch said. “So, not a bad finish today considering. Not a win. But we have started top-fiving it and when we do that, the wins should come.”
Busch made a remarkable move on a restart with 43 laps remaining – moving to the lead from his sixth-place position – and looking stout over the run. But his car began fading in the final laps with eventual race winner Brad Keselowski getting by with six laps to go and then Joey Logano and Johnson scooting past in the final laps.
WATCH: Busch catapults from sixth to first | Keselowski passes Busch
“Our car just wasn’t good on the long runs today,’” said Busch, who led 199 of 200 laps en route to the XFINITY Series victory on Saturday. “I felt like we had a really good shot when we got out front like that, but the vibration just got so bad it wouldn’t turn anymore.
“We’ve got some work to do. There are definitely some guys that are better than us. I think as a company we’re not bad. But I think we’re about fourth to eighth is where we run, so we need to get a little bit better.
“Yeah, we led laps today, but (teammate) Matt (Kenseth) being a leader got passed under the green flag and me being a leader got passed under the green flag so we’re just not good enough yet.
“If I had to grade our weekend for progress, it’s an A-plus for being as bad as we were to ending up right there.”