Livescore
BROOKLYN, Mich. — Hurry up and wait.
Such was the theme looming over the NASCAR Cup Series at Michigan International Speedway, at least when intimidating clouds and steady showers weren’t.
But for Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team, taking a gamble was another theme, and that gamble — in the form of a late-race two-tire pit stop — culminated with a much-needed fourth-place finish in Monday’s FireKeepers Casino 400.
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“Yeah, I mean, better for sure,” Busch said. “You know, up in the top 10 much of today, fighting for positions up in the top 10 much of the day. We can certainly have more speed if we had better balance. We just kept getting too tight off the corners, and that’s where we were losing our time. So there’s, there’s more potential in the setup being better and having more speed. So, just a good day overall for the Lucas Oil Chevrolet. And, you know, hope that next week, with Cheddar’s and zone and the remaining races coming up, we can put ourselves in a position to win one.”
Minimal practice times, in addition to no qualifying, saw Busch begin Michigan’s contest in 13th. A sixth-place finish to conclude Stage 1 eventually held serve for the No. 8 once the red flag was waved to conclude Sunday’s action.
Fast forward to Monday, and the No. 8’s speed continued. Busch seized the lead on Lap 58 before the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. overtook him eight laps later. A handful of cautions — including a Lap 116 incident that collected multiple contenders — saw Busch push forward and claim the Stage 2 win, his first since Sonoma Raceway in June 2023.
Fuel strategy after Corey LaJoie’s flip on Lap 135 led to a gamble being in order, and for crew chief Randall Burnett, the remedy came in the form of a two-tire call during the following pit stop. The gamble saw Busch cycle to the race lead, but tire tightness prevented him from maintaining it.
“That gave us options to take two at the end,” Burnett told NASCAR.com. “And so that was our only way to jump back in front of them, which we ended up doing, coming out and taking the lead there, whatever through the cycle, just a little bit too tight on those two tires. Didn’t make a good enough adjustment to to get it freed up enough on those two tires. I kind of hoped to be able to hold those guys off. So overall, was a good day for our Lucas Oil Chevy Camaro, top five. Wanted to win, obviously. Tried to do everything we could strategy-wise to put ourselves in position to win, and at the end of the day was just a little too tight to be able to hold them off. So good day for ourselves.”
“A good pit strategy by Randall and the guys to keep our track position to keep us up front there on two tires at the end,” Busch said. “Wasn’t going to be ideal on those short restarts, but hung on OK and got a top five.”
From staying strong through weather delays to grinding out a fourth-place finish, Busch prevailed in more ways than one, even though the No. 8 team couldn’t cash in with a Victory Lane appearance. But with on-and-off on-track time due to Mother Nature, adversity netted a positive for a team still fighting for a berth in the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs.
And in circumstances like Michigan’s race weekend, resilience is key.
“You just got to be on your game,” Burnett told NASCAR.com. “Everybody comes in here. Everybody works hard. Everybody’s focused on the task at hand. And so, you know, weather holds you out, you just got to keep thinking about what you’re going do, and try to make the best decisions the next day, and that’s what we did.”
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Up next for Busch will be Daytona International Speedway (Sat., 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), with Darlington Raceway coming soon after to conclude the regular-season campaign (Sept. 1, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
With a win likely required for the No. 8 team to crack the 16-driver postseason grid, perhaps momentum from Monday’s Michigan result will translate to even more prosperity in Florida.
Let’s wait and see.
“I think we could just kind of take the overall day and the chemistry and the results and try to move forward with it and better it,” Busch said. “The two coming up race tracks are entirely different than this one. So not much on on vehicle dynamics and setups and things like that, but just good momentum heading in the right direction.”
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