Unpredictability; thy name is NASCAR. Indeed, the arena of stock car racing is perhaps the most unpredictable zone in the world of competitive sports. When the four-wheeled beasts run at blazing speed, thirsty for that one priceless ride to the victory lane, the chance of winning is nothing but an unforgiving toss of a coin. Just over a span of a few days, you could get demoted from being the winner of a race to not even finishing another.
Take Martin Truex Jr., for example. How unfortunate it was when the seasonal points champion dangled in a precarious situation prior to the round of 12! Take Chase Elliott’s case; the Golden Boy of Hendrick Motorsports, who had never, for once, missed the playoffs for the last 7 years, is no longer on the playoff roster today. Not to mention Kyle Busch, the two-time Cup Series champion, who has had quite a bleak season overall as he sits in an uncertain situation moving on to the ROVAL.
Amidst the playoff woes, Kyle Busch reveals his team’s newest strategy
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There are two approaches to advancing to the upcoming rounds when you make it into the playoffs. Go for the win, and second, go to acquire stage points. After all, what matters most is the coveted Championship 4 race.?Earlier, the number 8 Richard Childress Racing driver had looked forward to leveraging the restarts and scoring stage points. But looking at his finishes in the last few races, it seems quite unlikely that Rowdy has been able to work according to the plan. So now, it looks like he is ready to initiate Plan B.
While talking to Frontstretch after the qualifying laps of the Bank of America Roval 400, the ex-KB Motorsports owner felt like the stage cautions don’t allow the drivers to rely on points because there are high chances of them being rallied back to the end of the field. Kyle Busch admitted, “We’ve got to do what we need to do to be able to maintain track position for the whole race and if that’s pitting early, and then leapfrogging after the stages; trying to go for the win, that’s what we gotta do.”
But does that make him more laid back during the first two stages? Frontstretch’s Stephen Stumpf had the same question in his mind. Kyle Busch agreed reluctantly, saying, “Yeah, pretty much. Again, it hurts our point total for going forward with the reset if we don’t make it through, but we’ve already killed that the last two weeks…it is what it is.”
Watch this story: Kyle Busch’s Rollercoaster Ride at Talladega
Knowing that Kyle Busch will go for the win might really change the predictions about the upcoming race. It seems like Kyle Busch is finally letting go of Bubba Wallace’s cardinal strategy that ultimately ended the day for the 23XI Racing sensation at Texas Motor Speedway.
Bubba Wallace booed himself after failing to do what he does best
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Despite winning the pole and leading a career-high 111 laps at the 1.5-mile oval, Bubba Wallace failed to capitalize on the final restart. With just 6 laps to go, Bubba Wallace missed the window of opportunity to seize his spot in the round of 8, as he finished third behind leader William Byron and Ross Chastain. According to NBC, Bubba booed himself as hard as his haters did. He said, “Oh, I?m booing myself, too, so we?re good. I?m one of you all today. Can?t have the worst restarts when you?re the best restarter,” he added, disappointed.
SHR icon Chase Briscoe made the restart on the outside lane of row 2, just behind Bubba Wallace. Briscoe gave Wallace a nudge, feeling like it would have been beneficial for both of them. But alas, it proved costly for the McDonald’s sponsored speedster. While talking to veteran journalist Dustin Long, Bubba Wallace said, “Briscoe got tight underneath me and that lost all my momentum. The best defense mechanism is to pack air on somebody?s left rear and that shoves the outside car up and that gives Byron a massive run. I should have just held my line into 3 instead of chasing down. Just gave it away there.”
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#NASCAR … “Just gave it away there,” Bubba Wallace on losing the lead on the final restart. pic.twitter.com/3N62azNrUQ
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) September 24, 2023
Bubba Wallace held himself responsible for lagging behind on the one sure shot of moving forward to the next round in the playoffs. He exclaimed, “I just hate it for my team, hate it for my sponsors. They put so much effort into giving me the best race cars to go out and win races and giving it up like that is heartbreaking, for sure. Devastating.”
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Read more: Kyle Busch Declares His Way to Race to Be Better, Unlike Former Teammate?s
The 23XI fortunate driver currently sits 9 points below the cutline as of today. Considering his ability to utilize restarts, if he focuses on collecting stage points again, maybe he could gather enough of them to move on to the next round. However, do you think Kyle Busch will be able to close the 26-point gap between him and the cutline and corkscrew his way into the semifinal round?