Despite Kyle Busch’s Rage, NASCAR Insider & Bubba Wallace’s Right-Hand Man Question His Strange Decision That Costed Him the Daytona 500

So, Kyle Busch believes that he would have won Sunday’s Daytona 500 if it was a 1998 NASCAR race. Leading the 200th lap for the first time in his entire career, Busch had reason to believe that he might finally win the Daytona 500 champion title. However, it’s not 1998, and leading the overtime was a necessary requirement to clinch the title.

But is it true that Busch lost his chance of winning only because of the overtime? Or does his and his team’s choice of restart positions have something to do with it?

In the latest episode of Door Bumper Clear, NASCAR spotters Brett Griffin, Freddie Kraft, and TJ Majors discussed Sunday’s race at Daytona 500. And during this conversation, they pointed out Kyle Busch’s strange restart decision that probably contributed to his loss at Daytona. Explaining why he found it all strange, Bubba Wallace‘s spotter, Freddie Kraft, said,

“That was an interesting choice on the last restart. If you could execute it flawlessly, I think it’s not a terrible move. But I don’t know why, we just talked about it, you can’t make a third lane. You can’t do anything. So, why would you not just line your two cars up, leading each lane, and go?”

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Furthermore, Brett Griffin agreed and added, “Or line up together from the jump. Because when Austin lead him down, that bottom did not have momentum.”

What had Kyle Busch and the team planned?

In a post-race interview with NBC Sports, Busch revealed that he was hoping to have a teammate restart where he could go to the down bottom and his teammate Austin Dillon could drive in the high line. The team hoped that the two drivers will eventually lock up and work their way together to the finish line.

However, this obviously didn’t work and Busch ended up in a last-lap crash, ending his race at position 19. While talking about this decision, Freddie Kraft revealed what would have worked best. He said,

“If you are worried about RCR winning the race, take both lanes. Because they can’t drive around you. I mean if they might be able to get a run and back up and go around the top but you just gotta be aggressive-blocking it. But if you just block both lanes, I don’t think you can get beat that way.”

Moreover, Brett Griffin acknowledged Kraft’s suggestion and added,

“If you are gonna do the whole ‘let’s get bumper to bumper,’ you gotta start bumper to bumper. If you’re gonna do ‘block both roads,’ you gotta race independently and block both roads.”

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It was clear that if executed cleverly, Kyle Busch’s strategy of a teammate restart would have worked wonders. However, as Freddie Kraft and Brett Griffin rightly said, if they had to do that teammate restart, they had to be down together at the start/finish line.