Kyle Busch Gets a Horrible Chase Start

Kyle Busch wasn't real happy with his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota over the course of the two practice sessions in preparations for this weekend's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but thanks to the weather he started on the pole for Sunday's Sylvania 300.

The good luck didn't last long.
Busch first started having issues in Sunday's race around lap 15 when something in the suspension of his No. 18 broke that made the car very, very loose and appear to roll too much weight to the right side of the car when Busch would drive around the flat, sweeping corners at NHMS.

The team tried to fix the problem during a prolonged pit stop under the competition caution NASCAR called on lap 35, but didn't seem to make much of a difference other than putting Busch a lap down.

Later in the event -- while Busch was still battling the extremely loose race car that was transferring way too much weight to the right of the car -- he looped the No. 18 coming off turn 2 on lap 83. In the smoke from Busch's spin, David Ragan and Jamie McMurray made contact that caused McMurray to slide into the rear of Busch.

The damage Busch received from the crash broke the rear wing and pushed in the left rear end of the car.

Fortunately, the day didn't get a whole lot worse for Busch, but mainly because it couldn't.

Wrecks later in the race helped Busch's cause, but still left him 8th in points, 74 behind new Chase for the Sprint Cup leader Jimmie Johnson.

Busch would finish 34th, 12 laps down.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-14-2008 @ 7:17PM

Mike LeVan said...

At least the problems on the 18 team were brought on by themselves. A special thanks should go out to Patrick Carpentier for his wreck on about lap 284 that sent Jeff Gordon from 8th to 18th costing him about 40 points in the chase. Another fine example of how non chase drivers can totally screw the guys in the chase.
Hey Bernie, Kyle just went from over 300 points in the lead to 74 points back all in one race. What do you think of the chase now?
MBL

9-15-2008 @ 12:27PM

Bernie said...

Mike,

That's what the chase is supposed to be like, Nascar's version of the playoffs. It sucks for some of us, right now but I don't expect Busch, Kenseth and a few others to continue having bad races. I know this feeling, I'm a die hard Mets fan, they probably had the worst choke job of any professional sports franchise last season, well maybe with the exception of the 1978 Redsox. I don't believe Kyle Busch, Steve Adington and the boys are going to have a total melt down. Of all the races they've had all season this race is when they have a serious suspension issue. I didn't watch most of the race, I had a terrible day as a sports fan. Kyle Busch, Mets, Jets, Chargers all lost. What a weekend. It's time for Kyle to put it all behind him, get up dust himself off and get busy in Dover. It's playoff racing, what can we the losing fans do? Lets go racing again!

9-14-2008 @ 7:22PM

CJ said...

YES!, this is what i like to see! It's time to shut up bout the top three because there are several guys in the running for this championship right now, and until guys start getting mathematically eliminated, there are NO CLEAR FAVORITES! And no more for Kyle Busch at least for a couple weeks!

9-15-2008 @ 1:25AM

Gary said...

They need to revamp the point system for the Cup Championship. It totally denegrates what you do in the first 26 races. Basically what you have is an extended exhibition season. Just like football playing 12 games and saying Whooa! We are all now 0-0 and what you do in the next 4 weeks count. And no I'm not a Kyle Busch fan. Happen to pull for Smoke.

9-15-2008 @ 4:06AM

anna seitter said...

WHAT I LIKED TO SEE WAS DEJ starting to trash his crew chief and team just like stewart did last week to his.
JUNIOR must heard our calls for on these pages or read about.
Thank god it FINALLY HAPPENED. ABOUT TIME!.
Now all we need is a negative file about junior action, today.
Damn i think if JEFF does post a negative file about junior, the nation will target him with soda cans and beer bottles like talladega at gordon.
IN REGARD TO KYLE BUSH ; his luck has been coming short and not only today , but unless he gots a negative bad luck trend ahead , he will bounce back in the next few races, so hold your horses KB HATERS. He has surprised us before.
BAD LUCK continue for jeff god on, sorry to say and same for tony stewart. However, another top 5 for junior and a top 10 almost impossible for tony buys TONY FURY more stay time at
HMS and as cousin crew chief . The count is now :13 races = 1WIN -1 TOP10-2 TOP 5. TONY stays within chase top ridges
but j god-on slips even further and that does not buy anymore time for STEVE LETARGY.
Meanwhile JJ and CHART KNAUS STILL FLYING HIGH AND GAINING. I'll say a 3rd champ. is now within ridges.
HAYWARDS is still making a stand for himself but i'll hold my thoughts on how far will he travel upwards.
That leaves only ZINFANDEL GREG uncommented, so i'll say him and tony had other altercations before and they got over it
and so they will with this latest one.
THE way i seen stewart and junior running today leads me to say they are still possible championship winners just as much as JJ- KB- and lets stretch to haywards, ARE.
Works for me...

9-15-2008 @ 11:39AM

99fan said...

Good run for carl , especially after the way they practiced friday. as much as i would like to see it, dont expect the 18 to run that bad every week.they will bounce back. congrats to the biff...... that was long overdue.

9-16-2008 @ 12:21AM

Stewart Fan said...

I missed the race due to Hurricane Ike somehow striking Ohio with Cat 1 winds. The family is safe but we did have minor property damage. No electric for up to a week and water problems. Thank goodness for generators. Schools and stores are all closed. It's crazy hee!

Kyle does seem to have lost some mojo but I wouldn't count him out. I think his attitude may have improved. He was on Trackside and he was funny, nice, humble and likable. I'm still not a fan but I can see why he does have fans. Nascar needs personalities like Kyle. He's fun, fun to watch and controversial.