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LOUDON, N.H. -- One of the strongest drivers all summer long, Kyle Busch now sits on the outside of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings looking in with one race remaining before the field is cut to 12.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver's title hopes took a significant hit Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as he clocked the wall between Turn 3 and 4, sending his No. 18 Toyota to the garage.
"It's killed," Busch told his crew after bringing out the fifth caution flag of Sunday's Sylvania 300.
Busch, who declined comment to NASCAR.com after the race, veered out of the racing groove on Lap 159, making heavy contact with the right side of his car.
"We had that short run there and the handling went away and just blew a right-front (tire)," No. 18 crew chief Adam Stevens said. "It looks like it just had a slow leak and just overworked the shoulder and finally blew out. The balance was free and it's not like we abused it, especially after we just had a fuel run. Just one of those things that happens. Sometimes you get a pin in the hole or run something over and find the fence."
The result sent him tumbling toward the bottom of the 16-driver Chase field -- 13th overall and 39 points behind leader, teammate and Loudon winner Matt Kenseth -- with only Sunday's race at Dover International Speedway to advance to the Contender Round, the next three-race stage of eliminations.
"(Kyle) is bummed that we weren't a little bit quicker and he's bummed that we had a problem," Stevens said. "We can control the quicker part; we can't control the problem."
Busch finished ninth in the Chase opener last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. That effort, combined with bonus points for his four regular-season wins, gave him solid footing after the Challenger Round opener. But his extended stay in the garage for major repairs at New Hampshire dropped him to a 37th-place finish, putting extra pressure on next weekend's event.
Despite the grisly outlook, by virtue of being a single point outside the cutoff behind Dale Earnhardt Jr., it's not a do-or-die scenario at the "Monster Mile."
"It's not a win-at-all-costs situation at all, which is comforting," said Stevens. "Sure (I think we can make the next round on points). Dover's a strong track for us. I haven't seen the (standings) yet at the end of the race, but a bunch of guys ran out of gas there. We were going to run third (at Dover) in Kyle's second race back and wrecked with a lapped car. I'm sure our cars have gotten better (since then) and Kyle's gotten more in shape.
"There's no reason we can't go there and have a good day. Things like this happen, too. They happened to us and they can happen to anybody else."
Contributing: Staff reports