When the Gen6 stock cars transitioned to the next generation cars, speed stopped being the sole factor responsible for getting the win at NASCAR races. Honestly, when 40 cars, all almost similar in terms of stats and specifications, run at full throttle on a speedway, the room for dominating one other purely based on speed is nearly impossible. However, this opens the room for errors and strategic planning.
In Sunday’s Holywood Casino 400, a four-tire advantage led Tyler Reddick’s car to the checkered flag with just 6 laps to go. And with that, a two-tire change benefitted three other Cup drivers in the playoff rumble. Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch was one of them. However, his archival drove past him and expressed high ambitions, moments after the race was over.
Team Penske icon shed light on his true intentions
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RFK Racing sensation Chris Buescher suffered from a flat tire on lap 261, which brought out the yellow flag. Just a lap later, Tyler Reddick made an ingenious move of committing to the pit road to get a four-tire change. This gave him an immense advantage over the then-leader, Daniel Suarez.
As Erik Jones, Joey Logano, and Kyle Busch came tagging along after a two-tire change for each, the bottom line opened up on the ultimate lap for the #45 Toyota, who then cleared the pack around turn 1 and bagged his 5th Cup Series career win, making a risky three-wide pass.
Joey Logano, who is also known to be Busch’s enemy, credited his finish to the number 22 crew chief, Paul Wolfe, saying that the strategy to change the tires really paid off for him.
Logano admitted, “He (Paul) almost won us the race. Had a chance at it and saw the lead if I was able to clear the 43, maybe I would have had a chance of holding those guys off. Tough, but had a chance at least and that’s all you can ask for.”
Although Ford pilot Joey Logano finished 5th, two spots over Kyle Busch at 7th, the former launched a 4-word long statement that summed up his intentions going into Kansas.
“I wanna be greedy,” he said, “I wish I could have on the race but I probably should just take what we got.”
Watch This Story: Fans Go Insane Over Resurfaced ?Hold My Clock? Fiasco as Richard Childress Gets Real on $150,000 Setback From Kyle Busch
During his time in NASCAR, Kyle Busch has had multiple altercations, even physical ones, with other stars of the sport. You may remember his brawl with Logano on the Vegas pit road in 2017. But do you know Busch has even fought with his current boss?
Many don’t know about the fight between Rowdy and his current boss at Kansas
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If one winds the clock back 12 years, one would witness the bitter relationship between Richard Childress and Kyle Busch. Busch had been racing hard with the then-RCR driver Joey Coulter in the 2011 Craftsman Truck Series. After the intense race, arguably to send a message, Busch gave his opponent a slight nudge. While Coulter did not retaliate, the incident did not sit well with the team owner.
Childress walked up to Busch in the parking lot, removed his watch, handed it to grandson Austin Dillon, and held Rowdy in a headlock before he threw a couple of punches at his current driver. As a result, NASCAR sent him on probation for the rest of the season and fined him with a sum of $150,000.
However, people change. And now, the driver-owner duo seems to be perfectly in sync with each other. After yesterday’s race, Kyle Busch seemed pretty happy with the results of his team.
“I think we got more than we should have or what we were capable of there,” he said, “Just unfortunate for us, we were kind of in that spot to ride on the line of take two, take 4, and obviously if you take 2, you can get further up but you know you’re gonna lose a few spots to the guys that take 4.”
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Referring to the bad aero spot on the last restart, Busch admitted that he might have lost a spot more than he should have. Nevertheless, he said, “We fought hard all day, all weekend. From what we endured yesterday and crashing in practice and coming through with no qualifying and being able to fight up to the front, good run, solid finish.”
Read More: Kyle Busch Declares His Way to Race to Be Better, Unlike Former Teammate?s