If there’s one thing that sums up Kyle Busch’s frustrating 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, it’s what happened during overtime in Sunday night’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team overcame a rocky start to what was scheduled to be a 300-lap race at the four-turn, 1.333-mile (2.145-kilometer) Lebanon, Tennessee, oval. The team was positioned to finish in the top five for just the third time this season.
But after restarting in fourth place in overtime, Busch was hit when Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson made an overly aggressive move behind Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, resulting in the No. 5 Chevrolet breaking loose and sending the No. 1 Chevrolet of Trackhouse Racing Team’s Ross Chastain spinning into the wall.
Busch stayed up front and ended up in the wall with Chastain. But because of the relatively minor contact, he was able to continue, despite losing his spot in the starting order.
NASCAR uses timelines to determine the order in which the caution flag is thrown, and Busch was determined to be running fourth at the time.
However, because he was involved in the accident and was not even close to being able to keep up with the rest of the field, no one would have imagined that he would actually be allowed to return to fourth place before the next restart.
After the second restart of overtime, there was another quick caution for an accident on the home straight.
Then, during the race’s third restart in overtime, Larson failed to start properly because his No. 5 Chevrolet was running low on fuel. Busch was right behind him and, with nowhere to go, he spun off the track and ended his race. He was officially classified 27th, giving him his third consecutive retirement and fourth in the past five races.
It almost seemed as if the frustrated Las Vegas, Nevada, native was trying to burnout for victory down the frontstretch before finally emerging from his No. 8 Chevrolet as the crowd roared.
As disastrous as it sounds, Busch’s 27th-place finish in which he retired from the race is actually his second-best “finish” since the month of May ended. He now sits 17th in the points standings, but 19th in the playoff standings, 104 points away from the playoff cut line.
Busch holds the all-time record with 19 consecutive winning seasons and is the active leader with 11 consecutive playoff appearances. Both streaks are in jeopardy with just seven regular-season races and 17 total races remaining on the 2024 schedule.
Larson, on the other hand, took advantage of two more restarts in overtime to climb back up to eighth place.
So, ironically, if Busch had been kept toward the back of the field as he should have been when he was involved in the Chastain incident, he likely would have been able to work his way back into the top five, given the fact that the race was extended by 31 laps due to his Cup Series-record five overtime restarts.
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The 20th race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season will be the Grant Park 165, which will be held this Sunday afternoon. Busch finished fifth in the opening race at the Chicago Street Course, which was the first-ever street course race in the Cup Series, last year. Tune in to KeynoteUSA at 4:30 p.m. ET to watch the live stream. Start a Try FuboTV for free now And don’t miss it!
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