Stewart-Haas Racing driver led 98 laps at Bristol
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BRISTOL, Tenn. – There was no second-guessing the decision to pit late in Sunday’s race from Kurt Busch or his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team.
Busch led six times for 98 laps in the Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up to Cancer at Bristol Motor Speedway. But when the caution flew for a five-car incident on Lap 482, the 2004 Sprint Cup Series champion headed for pit road. Most of the others up front at that point in the race – Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – did not.
“We had 100 laps on our tires,” Busch said of the call to pit road. “I thought we needed to pit. (John) Klausmeier (engineer) thought we needed to pit. Then I was thinking this is the Bristol of old, we might be able to get away with staying out.”
Klausmeier, along with help from SHR Vice President of Competition director Greg Zipadelli, was calling the shots for the team after crew chief Tony Gibson had to exit due to a kidney stone.
Busch restarted the race sixth, and immediately radioed his team to confirm that it was the right call to pit.
WATCH: Edwards spins while battling Gordon
Barely a dozen laps later, however, Busch was collected in an accident when Edwards’ No. 19 Toyota slipped while running side-by-side with Gordon. Busch, trailing the two, was unable to avoid contact with Edwards, and the result was heavy damage to the right front of his Chevrolet.
“We had fresh tires coming up through (traffic),” Busch said. “Edwards pushed the cushion. He hit some ice, I hit the same stuff or he was throwing the marbles out on the track and I just got sucked right in there. I was like ‘I’m avoiding the wreck,’ but I couldn’t do anything to avoid them. We salvaged 15th. The car could have won.”
WATCH: Busch, Johnson spin after restart
Gordon, who finished third behind race winner Kenseth of Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson, said he was surprised to see Busch hit pit road with the lead late in the race and rain in the area.
But it was clear that Busch had a car capable of winning, he said.
“To me Kurt, on old tires or on newer tires, he had the dominant car,” said Gordon. “I was behind him a lot tonight, and I watched him do things that I didn’t see anybody else do. I mean, I saw Jimmie pretty good on the bottom, Carl decent at times, but the 41 would drive by five cars in the middle of the race track to the bottom on restarts and then pull back up in line and go to work on the rest of them. He was incredibly fast.”
In the end, the opportunity to try and reel in Kenseth never surfaced.
Since returning from missing the season’s first three races while serving a NASCAR suspension, Busch has finished no worse than Sunday night’s 15th-place result. Twice, at Phoenix and Auto Club, he finished in the top five.
“We had a very eventful day,” he said. “I don’t even know how to describe it. This is a good sign. We had good long run speed and that is the most positive thing to take from the last couple of weeks where we didn’t have that long run speed. …
“We will get it. We are not going to get one win. We are going to get many wins.”
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