Kyle Busch ready to move past ‘painful’ championship defeat

Kyle Busch hasn’t watched the 2017 season finale, the race where the Monster Energy Cup championship was decided and the race where Busch narrowly finished runner-up to Martin Truex Jr.

Truex, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, and Busch entered the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway as the only four drivers title eligible. Whoever finished best among them would be crowned the series champion, and for much of the latter third of the race it appeared Busch was well positioned to do just that.

But as Busch was leading, a caution with 39 laps remaining erased his advantage, and on the ensuing pit stops and subsequent restart Truex jumped ahead. Busch was able to keep pace with Truex and though he came close several times, he could never pass the No. 78 car. And when the Ford 400 concluded, it was Truex celebrating both the race win and his first Cup championship.

“I think if we would have been in front of the 78, if we would have reversed situations where we would have been where the 78 was, I feel like we would have drove away,” Busch said Jan. 23 at the NASCAR Media Tour at the Charlotte, N.C., Convention Center. “We won would have by four or five seconds. They wouldn’t even have gotten as close as I got to them.”

Alas, Busch fell just short of winning his second title in three years. It marked the third consecutive season he has finished third or better in the championship standings.

“Feels like a letdown, having the opportunity to be able to win that race,” Busch said. “We were right there, we were real close, but wasn’t able to get it done.”

Truex dominated the 2017 season, leading the season in nearly every major statistical category, including wins, stage wins, top fives, top 10s, average finish, and laps led. Busch, however, was as good as Truex during the second half of the season — if not better at times — and as demonstrated at Homestead, had the speed to beat the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team.

But in the waning laps when it mattered most, Truex was able to get the best of Busch. Several times it appeared as if Busch was going to get a run on Truex and make the winning pass, yet he could never get alongside the No. 78.

It’s a loss that still bothers Busch, who says he hasn’t gone back and watched the race. Nor does he have any plans to do so.

”I definitely feel as though we matched them at Homestead,” Busch said. “I’d say that we were actually a little bit better than they were at Homestead.

“That’s what makes Homestead so painful -- you can be a guy who wins 35 races out of the year, and then that 36th race you can finish second and lose the championship. We thought we had the opportunity to put the 78 bunch in that situation, but just wasn’t quite able to pull it all off there at the end. That was kind of painful for us.”