“All My Friends…Went Away” – Kyle Busch Indebted To Bubba Wallace For Saving His Race And Pushing Ahead

It’s not common to see a Chevy and a Toyota team up to beat a Ford, but that’s exactly what happened on the last lap of the Ambetter Health 400 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday. Although it was inadvertent, Kyle Busch was appreciative of Bubba Wallace’s effort to push him to be level with Ryan Blaney on the last lap. Otherwise, it would have been a Ford car in victory lane as per Rowdy.

The race ended with a photo finish with Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, and Ryan Blaney all fighting to the line. The Trackhouse Racing car crossed the line first by a hair’s width ahead of the reigning Cup Series champion. While Busch finished P3, he was happy that a Chevrolet took the checkered flag ahead of a Ford.

Toyota and Chevy combined to beat a Ford to Rowdy’s delight

But that would have not been the case had it not been for the only driver to have two straight top-five finishes so far this season in the Cup Series. Bubba Wallace has had a fantastic start to the 2024 season, and he’s only getting better. On the final lap of the Atlanta race, it was the 23XI Racing driver’s push that allowed Kyle Busch to be level with Ryan Blaney with more than half of the lap to go.

It threw the Team Penske man off his game, as he probably was not expecting someone to take a tight middle lane. Eventually, it was the man on the top lane, Daniel Suarez, who beat them both and booked his spot in the playoffs. Rowdy was disappointed that he did not win, but it was much better than seeing a Ford driver celebrate, which he revealed in the post-race interview on the track.

“There towards the end, I didn’t know. You don’t really have that many alliances. All of my friends kind of just disintegrated and went away throughout the day but Bubba came to our rescue and he was a huge part of our success off of 2, down the backstretch and getting a run. Getting alongside Blaney was a tight fit but being able to make that move…if I didn’t make that move then I push Blaney out too far through 3 and 4 and he wins so…glad to see a Chevy in victory lane,” the driver of the #8 said.

In the end, it all came down to who had the better line. It’s not easy racing on superspeedways and Kyle Busch did not expect Daniel Suarez to appear on the top lane out of nowhere and take the checkered flag. Ryan Blaney was too much on the inside to do anything about it as well.

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Kyle Busch blames his eyesight after losing to Daniel Suarez

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“I hate that we had a Lightning McQueen-style finish there,” Rowdy joked as he referenced a scene from the iconic animated movie Cars. Credit has to go to Daniel Suarez for taking the high lane on a superspeedway, where such an approach can easily lead to a massive crash. Rowdy said that he was too focused on the #12 to do anything about the #99 picking up the side draft and edging them to the finish line.

“It’s frustrating; I hate it because I felt like we were one of the top five cars today and had a good shot. The 12 [Blaney] was fast; deservingly, they were probably one of the fastest cars. With all the carnage, obviously that happened that took out some other guys early. But I got a little too far ahead of the 99 [Suarez], and he got a good side draft through the corner. I didn’t think the outside would prevail, but with the run down the frontstretch and the side draft that’s what hurt us. But I was looking at the 12. I swore I was ahead of the 12 at the line, but obviously, my eyes are bad. I need more powerful glasses, I guess,” the driver of the #8 said as per RACER.

The next race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign will take place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and that is shaping up to be an interesting affair. A lot of drivers seem to be in good form and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in the Sin City.

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