The contrast was stark. In one portion of Michigan International Speedway’s garage, NASCAR had set up a makeshift victory lane for Kurt Busch to celebrate winning Sunday’s rain-shortened Quicken Loans 400.
NASCAR Michigan 2015 recap: Kyle Busch’s Chase hopes take serious blow
After his second crash in four races, Kyle Busch’s chances of making NASCAR’s Chase have greatly diminished.
Over in another section sat Kyle Busch’s beaten and battered No. 18 car. The younger brother of Kurt, Kyle had been involved in a jarring, nearly head-on collision into the front stretch wall off Turn 4 and finished 43rd, last.
Thankfully, Busch was uninjured. He impacted a wall covered with a SAFER barrier and not one left unprotected like the wall he struck in February at Daytona International Speedway.
Not as fortunate to escape unscathed, however, were Busch’s playoff hopes.
Busch’s path to the Chase for the Sprint Cup was always going to be arduous. That’s what happens when a broken right leg and left foot force you to miss 11 races, giving you just 15 to recoup the points others can accumulate over 26 events.
What Busch needed upon his return last month was a near flawless stretch to allow him to narrow the deficit on whomever is positioned 30th in the standings -- the minimum threshold he must obtain to gain playoff eligibility provided he also were to win a regular season race.
Instead, through no fault of his own, the strong finishes Busch so desperately needed have mostly been fleeting.
In the four races he’s started since coming back (not counting the exhibition All-Star Race) the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has crashed out twice, negating what would’ve likely been top-10s. Another potential good result went by the wayside when the Coca-Cola 600 was decided on fuel mileage, with several teams correctly surmising they could make it to the finish without pitting. Busch finished 11th. He followed with a 36th at Dover International Speedway and a ninth at Pocono Raceway last week.
Sunday’s incident was especially frustrating, and possibly preventable. Busch wrecked just after NASCAR had lifted a red flag following a thunderstorm, but as the field circled under caution several drivers, including race-leader Kevin Harvick, said it was raining and questioned whether it was safe to resume running at speeds flirting with 200 mph.
Nevertheless, officials dropped the green flag. And before a single lap could be completed, the expected happened -- Busch lost control and slammed the wall.
“It was down pouring,” Harvick radioed to his team after Busch’s wreck. “It was raining when we came to the green ... All they have to do is look at the radar and realize they put us in a bad spot. That was stupid.”
When Busch returned he trailed then 30th-place Tony Stewart by 179 points. That gap has shrunk only minutely, with Busch now 173 points below the cutline. To surpass Justin Allgaier, currently 30th overall, Busch would need to trim 15.7 points per race -- a difficult and unlikely proposition.
That’s not to say Busch cannot do the seemingly impossible and earn a Chase spot. With his ability behind the wheel nearly unmatched, scoring a victory and going on a monumental run of excellence could happen.
Everything would need to go right, however. And as Sunday demonstrated yet again, few things have worked in Busch’s favor this season.
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