Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth doomed by repeated tire issues at Bristol

Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth were considered among the favorites entering Sunday’s NASCAR race, but repeated right-front tire problems prevented either of the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers from winning the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch experienced his first tire failure on Lap 53, causing him to scrape the outside wall. The damage on the No. 18 car was relatively minor and he continued, quickly moving through the field and into the top 10, only to encounter other issues not related to tires including the defending Sprint Cup champion being caught speeding on pit road twice and spinning after contact with Chris Buescher.

It was a second failure nearly 200 laps later that brought the day to an early end for Busch, who had come into Bristol riding a two-race winning streak. When the right-front exploded it sent Busch hard into the Turn 2 wall, causing significant damage. He immediately took his car to the garage and did not return, credited with a 38th-place finish.

“We had a really fast car,” Busch said. “We drove up from the back to the front a couple times and showed what we were made of, but obviously it doesn’t matter when you’re in the garage.”

Kenseth could relate to the frustration Busch felt. While leading, Kenseth had a right front fail, sending him into the wall on Lap 187. Like Busch, he pitted and went about recouping the lost positions, having fallen to 26th but climbing back to third until a second blown tire destroyed any chance of a comeback bid.

The second incident did enough damage necessitating that Kenseth, who led 142 laps, go to the garage for extensive repairs. He would return and finished 36th.

“The first time we blew a right front in Turn 1, I was kind of in the corner so we didn’t hit as hard,” Kenseth said. “The second time I blew it in Turn 3 and my angle was a lot worse, we hit a lot harder. Same problem just happened twice.”

A third JGR car driven by Denny Hamlin also dealt with a right-front tire problem, though he had just a single failure.

Neither Busch, Kenseth nor JGR could pinpoint the exact reason for the rash of blown tires, with both drivers saying they purposely took it easy after their respective initial incident to prevent a reoccurrence.

“I was just cruising, I was just riding along and the car felt fine,” Busch said. “I don’t know why it kept getting tighter and why we were blowing right fronts.”

Goodyear, the series’ supplier, said it would take the tires from Busch, Kenseth and Hamlin back to its Akron, Ohio headquarters for further analysis. That one organization had three of its cars suffer identical issues indicates a team-specific issue related to chassis setups, which Kenseth disputes.

“I don’t know, I’m not a tire expert, and I’m not a setup guy,” Kenseth said. “I don’t think we’re doing anything much different than we’ve ever done here. Same tire and pretty similar setups that we always run. No major handling problems so I honestly don’t know.”

In a juxtaposition, Carl Edwards driving a fourth JGR entry had zero tire complications and won the eighth race of the season. The victory was the fourth overall for JGR and first for Edwards, who led a race-high 276 laps.

“I have the best teammates in the business, and if they can have trouble, I can surely have trouble,” Edwards said. “I was nervous about it, but Dave (Rogers, crew chief) did a good job of talking to me about how hard we were pushing the tires and what we had going on there, so I felt pretty comfortable after talking to Dave after a couple stops.”