Exclusive: Frustrated Kyle Busch Rubbishes RCR's Muck-Up Fueling Corey LaJoie's Pocono Retaliation

Home/NASCAR

Exclusive: Frustrated Kyle Busch Rubbishes RCR’s Muck-Up Fueling Corey LaJoie’s Pocono Retaliation

ByViren Mirpuri

Jul 14, 2024 | 7:40 PM EDT

Link Copied!

Debate

What's Your Perspective On

Did RCR's fueling blunder cost Kyle Busch a win, or was Corey LaJoie's retaliation justified?

We know what the drill has been with RCR’s #8 team since the beginning of the 2024 season. Running on a 41-race winless streak come Pocono, the team saw three pit crew shuffles in four races earlier in the season, in hopes of striking that sweet spot. However, not much has worked out for Kyle Busch yet.

In the wake of his P9 finish at Chicago, the #8 driver was hopeful. Like always, though, his dreams were short-lived given another DNF last weekend. To add to his miseries, during the practice session, the racer had also reported having a steering wheel issue. While most would start taking a dig at Richard Childress Racing, saying “This is complete garbage”, much like the Busch did in the past, to everyone’s surprise, the 39-year-old sang a different tune this time. According to him, it was not the wheel that became the reason for his P32 finish.

During the Great American Getaway 400, EssentiallySports, the official media partners of Real American Beer for Pocono, asked Kyle Busch about the issues he faced during the practice sessions by our on-ground reporter Bharat Aggarwal, “With the issue before the race, did you try to hang on and see what you could do today?”

However, denying any problems with the car, Kyle Busch said, “Yeah, I don’t know exactly what the problem was with the issue before the race, but I doubt it had anything to do with our race car, and they were able to get it fixed. I am so thankful that we found it ahead of time and got a chance to go race today.”

As a follow-up, Rowdy was further asked, “You mentioned a steering issue during qualifying; did it get better during the race at all?” Stating that the Richard Childress Racing team had fixed the steering issue, Kyle Busch replied to the EssentiallySports reporter, “They had it fixed prior to qualifying, so everything was fine with that.”

If not the car as everyone thought, what went wrong for Rowdy this weekend then?

Was it Corey LaJoie?

Despite getting the car in the right condition to race, Kyle Busch had an incident where he was taken out of the race by Corey LaJoie owing to a double block. This happened when Corey LaJoie’s No. 7 Chevrolet made contact with Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Chevy as the field fanned out and then tried to funnel into Turn 1 in the final stage of the Great American Getaway 400. The nudge sent Busch’s No. 8 sliding through the infield grass and back up into traffic, collecting the cars of AJ Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Ryan Preece, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. This antic by LaJoie even got Richard Childress mad, calling him “a damn weapon”.

However, LaJoie begged to differ. In a conversation with EssentiallySports reporter Bharat Aggarwal, he said, “I’m sure those guys are that caught up.. that was mad but I didn’t feel like it was a boneheaded move. I had a run, I got to the left rear, he blocked it twice and the second time he spun his a** out.”

He mentioned that it was the #8 team that was largely at fault. He also sort of hinted that it could just be some other factor, as both RCR and Spire have been in a similar boat. “It’s a competitor-based business, and the #7 team hasn’t had a great year; the #8 team hasn’t had a great year. So anytime that they kind of finish how you want to, you’re gonna be frustrated and I understand that I’m sure he’s mad.”

In another conversation with NASCAR, he also refused to apologize, saying it’s not even his fault. “Kyle and I’ve been racing each other around for long enough we won’t be smashing into each other on purpose. I’m not gonna say sorry, I’m not sorry about it because that was the thing out there and if the issue was on another foot, the exact same thing would’ve happened,” the driver mentioned.

Well, whatever the case, the bottom line remains that this weekend in Pocono, Kyle Busch lost another chance at making it to the playoffs. Currently, he’s sitting 18th in the standings with five races to go before the regular season ends.

Do you think that Kyle Busch has it in him to make it to the playoffs this season? Let us know what you think in the comments below.