Kyle Busch uninjured in crash at Daytona

Kyle Busch escaped injury when a blown right rear tire caused him to slam nearly head-on into the Turn 2 wall during morning practice Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

Busch was running in a line of cars when the tire let go unexpectedly, causing him to lose control with less than 10 minutes in practice. He then violently slammed nose-first into the outside wall, causing significant damage to the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing entry.

“Your first instinct is to correct and the car automatically corrects and then finally when it hits the apron it catches and turns back the other way head-on into the fence,” Busch said. “That was certainly a big hit, and you have to thank NASCAR for their safety advancements in the cars and the drivers’ equipment and things like that -- the SAFER barrier, as well. That could have been a heck of a lot worse than what that was.”

Busch, the defending Sprint Cup champion, blamed Goodyear for what he perceived to be inadequate tires that showed wear after just four laps. But NASCAR’s tire supplier determined Busch suffered a puncture and had a “huge gash, 1-1/2 inch square” that caused the failure.

“Pretty confident in Joe Gibbs Racing and their ability to provide good race cars,” Busch said, “not very confident in Goodyear in giving us good tires to go out there and race on and have confidence in them.”

Busch will have to switch to a backup car for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400.