Livescore
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Saturday night‘s finish to the Cup Series at Daytona was an amalgamation of the 2024 season for Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team.
The leader on the overtime restart, Busch took the bottom line with former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell dropping behind him to push for the remaining two laps.
While the No. 8 hot rod surged ahead on the final lap, Bell’s No. 20 Toyota got squirrely behind Busch, allowing for a big run from Harrison Burton to get out clear for the lead with the help of Parker Retzlaff, making just his second start at NASCAR‘s top level.
Coming to the checkered flag, Busch bobbed left and right to find an opening to pass the third-year driver but it was to no avail as Burton scored his first Cup win and the 100th win for the historic Wood Brothers Racing.
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“I mean, you’re wide open. You’re just doing everything you can,” Busch said. ”You’re relying on everything happening behind you and unfortunately, the 20, something happened off of (Turn) two where he got squirreled up and wasn’t to my rear bumper, and then he was below the yellow line, and I don’t know what was going on. Completely killed the bottom lane and the outside just rolled and once we got to Turn 4, there just wasn’t enough energy with enough cars from behind me. I was relying on my own draft to try to pass the 21 and that happens so slow …
“Besides wrecking him (Burton), nothing to do in that situation. I could have jumped up in front of the 21 and probably taken that, but I don’t know that he would have kept straight on me. I had more trust in the 20 there being a better ally, but didn’t work out.
With Saturday‘s 164 laps seeing its fair share of attrition, Busch was surrounded by a handful of drivers he hasn‘t raced up front with historically, with Burton and Retzlaff going for the win.
The final results board showed the likes of Cody Ware, Retzlaff, and Daniel Hemric, all of whom were surrounding the two-time series champions in the top 10.
“I don’t think I’ve ever raced with Parker,” Busch said. “I’ve seen him on the Xfinity side, but I don’t think I’ve ever run a race with him. But all things considered, it just doesn’t matter who they are. They’re just cars at that point.”
Having first pick of lane choice is premium for drivers on most weeks, but it could leave drivers vulnerable on superspeedways as they all get to react and set up their way to draft and get to the lead.
Busch‘s crew chief Randall Burnett was confident in whichever way the rest of their competitors lined up, especially with Bell lining up behind the No. 8.
“It’s not a bad thing to have to pick first and start on the front row,” Burnett told NASCAR.com “We picked the bottom and the 20, we felt like he was going to be a good pusher. He picked behind us so we felt pretty good about that. It went OK the first lap and then we got gapped a little bit there, you know, and they built up a decent run. So we kind of lost all of our momentum there, but everybody did a great job tonight. Just (came) up a little short.”
Busch still has one more opportunity to win his way into the playoffs with next Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) closing out the regular season.
It will be a tall task for the No. 8 team with how 2024 has gone thus far. With 11 races to go, a postseason berth and a 20-year streak of winning hang in the balance.
Tonight, however, might have been his best shot.
“It is what it is, bro. We got beat. We lost,” Busch said. “We didn’t make it to the finish line first. I’ve controlled I don’t know how many restarts here of late at the end of the races going into overtime and haven’t been able to complete the win. I don’t know what to do to make it better.”
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