Kyle Busch knows he shouldn’t be frustrated -- not after opening the Chase for the Sprint Cup with three consecutive top-five finishes, including a fifth Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
NASCAR Dover 2013: Kyle Busch notches another top five, wants more
Though his car was not to his liking, Kyle Busch was still able to finish fifth in Sunday’s NASCAR race at Dover.
Rob Carr
But even as he’s off to the best Chase start of his career, Busch can’t help but lament the fact he hasn’t won a race in the last three weeks while his two rivals for the championship, Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson, each have paid visits to Victory Lane.
Frustrated Earnhardt finishes second
Not content with finishing second, Dale Earnhardt Jr. feels he should have won Sunday. “We were about a fifth to seventh-place car much of the day and we ended up fifth,” Busch said. “Certainly, I wish we definitely could’ve gotten more. It’s certainly the finish that our car was today. It’s frustrating to be fifth, but yet you look at the grand scheme of things and it’s three straight top-fives to start the Chase so not bad.”
While Busch was passed by Johnson in the standings and fell to third overall, he did trim two points off the deficit between himself and Kenseth, who finished the AAA 400 seventh. The trio has created a distinct separation between themselves and the other 10 Chase drivers. Kevin Harvick and Jeff Harvick are tied for fourth, 39 points behind Kenseth.
Busch struggled with a loose condition all race, an issue he dealt with throughout the weekend. And no matter what adjustments crew chief Dave Rodgers made it wasn’t enough to give Busch the proper grip he wanted with the front of his car.
“We didn’t make any gains on it really this weekend, which is frustrating, but yet we knew we had a good car,” Busch said. “We got a fifth out of it, so we got the most of what we could ... but it’s three straight top-fives to start the Chase.
“It’s certainly appealing and you could be happy with it, but we’re a little disappointed at the same time. We felt like we wanted to come in here, we wanted to run better, we could run better here, we have before and just could never really get the feel that I was looking for the whole weekend with the front tires.”
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