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A pair of pit-road fake-outs went horribly wrong for Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson during the eighth caution period of Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, spoiling the day for two drivers firmly running in the top five.
Busch, a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs contender, feinted toward pit road after the yellow flag emerged for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s third wall scrape of the day. When Busch tried to return to the race track to keep his third position, he bumped into second-place Larson, who was making his own lean toward pit road.
The contact sent both Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet spinning at the pit entrance, with Busch’s No. 18 Toyota skidding and clipping into the commitment cone.
“What the (expletive) is he thinking?” Busch told his Joe Gibbs Racing crew over the radio. “He’s never going to make the (expletive) commitment cone anyway.”
Larson later told his Chip Ganassi Racing crew over the radio: “I’m sure it doesn’t matter, but please apologize as much as you can.”
After making multiple stops for repairs, Busch resumed the race in 23rd place with Larson 24th as the last two cars on the lead lap. Busch fared only slightly better after the contact, finishing 20th to Larson’s 21st — both a lap down.
“I don’t know. Just can’t say enough about my guys — all the work that they put into these things,” Busch said. “They don’t deserve to be put in these situations year in, year out, but we are for some reason. But it’s tough and we’re going to have to battle through with what we’ve got right now. I can’t say enough about what they did on pit road getting us back salvageable.”
Busch might’ve demurred when asked about the contact with Larson, but Adam Stevens, his crew chief, was more demonstrative, saying his plan all along was to keep his driver on the race track.
“(Busch) knew the call the whole time, he was just doing what he normally does,” Stevens said. “The big question is what was the 42 (Larson) doing. There was no way, whether we were there or not, he turned down so late that he was going to hit the cone — he was going to completely miss the cone on the right or maybe touch it with his left side somewhere, there was no way he was going to get under the cone. I don’t know what he was doing, but you’ll have that sometimes. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional.”
Larson reiterated his apology post-race.
“They told me to do what everybody around me was doing and the No. 22 (leader and eventual race winner Joey Logano) was staying out, so I was committed to staying out,” Larson said, “and as soon as I turned right to stay out they said pit, pit, pit. I hung a left and Kyle was there. I feel really terrible to ruin their day and hopefully it didn’t hurt their chances of transferring through this round. I know they deserve a top-three finish for sure. I felt awful immediately and still do. I hate it.”