No. 18 driver trails 30th-place Cole Whitt by 87 points at Loudon
RELATED: Who can clinch Chase spots Sunday | Updated Chase grid
LOUDON, N.H. — Kyle Busch‘s drive to race his way into the top 30 in points begins anew this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s 5-hour ENERGY 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (1:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM).
The 16 spots in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will be filled by those drivers with one or more wins and who are in the top 30 in points after the season’s 26th race (at Richmond International Raceway). Should there not be 16 different winners, the remaining positions will be filled based on points positions.
Winning hasn’t been an issue for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Although he missed the season’s first 11 races because of injuries sustained in the season-opening XFINITY Series event at Daytona International Speedway, Busch, 30, has won twice in Sprint Cup since returning in late May.
Cracking the top 30 in points has been another matter. Since his return, Busch has climbed six positions – from 41st to 35th. He currently trails 30th-place Cole Whitt by 87 points. Eight races remain.
MORE: Timeline of Busch’s injury and recovery
“I think if we were a guy or a team that was sort of 13th through 16th or whatever and didn’t have wins then we’d be in the same position we’re in right now,” Busch said Friday at NHMS. “We’re racing for points.
“We have to get those points to be the highest eligible guy without the win – but our circumstances are a little different; we’ve got wins and yet we still seem to be out.”
“We’re just doing the best job that we can each and every week to continue to put good cars on the race track.”
The good news for Busch, of course, is that he has the wins, the more difficult of the two hurdles he’s had to clear. Even better is that he’s won on six of the eight tracks the series will visit before the start of the Chase. Only Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway have yet to welcome Busch into the winner’s circle, and stops at those two tracks come after this weekend’s stop at NHMS.
RELATED: Busch feels no pain racing for a win
He’s a one-time winner in Sprint Cup here at the 1.058-mile track.
Victories provide the most points, but the road to the winner’s circle often is lined with potholes. Busch already has stepped in his share, finishing 36th at Dover and 43rd at Michigan.
“I feel like I probably gave away 60 points in those two (races),” he said, “so I would be 17 (points) out right now, which is essentially nothing. We might even make that up here this weekend.”
Of course, he said, “that’s irrelevant.”
“We’re 87 out so that’s the number we look at. … We’ll be fine, we just have to do the right things and if this Sunday is an eighth-place finish, then that’s what it is. If it’s a 12th, then that’s what it is. It will get us there a little bit slower, but if we can get a win or a top-five like we should be here, that’s the way I’ve run here the last few times.”
A year ago, he finished second in the summer race, and then managed an eighth-place result when the series returned in the fall.
An incident with teammate Matt Kenseth “knocked our nose in and … we still ended up eighth somehow,” he said. “That wasn’t too terrible.
“As bad as that day could have been, we finished top-10; I feel pretty promising that we can have a good run here.”