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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kurt Busch had two laps to erase a career-winless streak in restrictor-plate races, but contact from Joey Logano sent the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion spinning through the grass on the final lap of Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona international Speedway.
“We got hit hard from behind,” a composed Busch said after his shot at victory turned out to be a 23rd-place finish. “Our rear tires were off the ground and I don’t know where Logano wanted to go because he was going to go from fifth to first? There’s not a chance he had to win it.”
The fifth caution period of the race, brought out when Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Carl Edwards got into the wall on the frontstretch, set up a green, white, checkered finish, and when the field was reset for the start, Busch was second, alongside leader Brad Keselowski and trailed by Kyle Busch and Logano.
But a lap later and coming out of Turn 4 with the checkered flag in the air, Busch’s No. 41 Chevrolet suddenly turned left and slid across asphalt and eventually the infield grass after contact from Logano’s No. 22 Ford.
“I think that he made an aggressive mistake; you can’t go from fifth to first,” Busch said. “There’s just no shot at it. It’s a shame that we ended up spun around and wrecked. We could have come out of here with the points lead.”
Crew chief Tony Gibson said he felt his team had a shot at the win as the final laps began to play out. “We had a fast car; it was there,” the veteran crew chief said, watching as crewmen cut away the car’s damaged front end.
He didn’t seem surprised, though, that there was hard contact from the Team Penske driver.
“I don’t know. Logano races people like that,” he said. “That’s why he’ll never win a championship. He keeps pissing people off like that he’s never going to win, you know? It’s just stupid. Stupidity.”
Stupid is as stupid does!!! #22
— Tony Gibson (@TonyOldman41)
July 3, 2016
Busch had few choices as far as drafting partners in the closing laps; Gibson said that wasn’t an issue.
“I think at the end of the day if you have a fast car you’re going to have help,” he said. “The problem was Logano sees he has a chance to outrun his teammate so he’s going to wreck you to (do that). … It’s just a shame.”
Keselowski collected the victory, the 100th in NASCAR’s premier series for team owner Roger Penske. He led 115 laps of the race, which was extended one additional lap (from 160 to 161) by the final caution.
Logano finished fourth and called the incident “a product” of restrictor-plate racing. His contact with Busch was far from the only incident on the night. earlier cautions involved four or more cars, including one incident that collected 22 entries.
“I hate that I got into Kurt there at the end racing to the line,” Logano said. “I had a run to turn up underneath him and when you do that the cars get free and then I was there and he tried to catch it and I was there again.
“It is a product of this racing but I hate that it happened. The last thing I want to do is hit someone like that. Unfortunately, it happened.”
Penske, the car owner, said his driver “has taken … some undue criticism from my perspective based on some of the things that have happened.
“Certainly you can go back, and I can name three or four things that certainly weren’t his fault.
“Honestly, I think he’s one of the best drivers on the race track day in and day out, and sure, people make mistakes. … As far as I’m concerned, I’m behind him 300 percent, and I’ll talk to Kurt; he didn’t do it on purpose. It could have been a big mess down there tonight, too, and at the end of the day, that’s racing as far as I’m concerned.”