After the Wurth 400 at Dover, Kyle Busch was being interviewed following his P4 performance. That’s when he got interrupted. The crew of Martin Truex Jr. were pushing their car to the NASCAR garage and got a little too close.
Kyle Busch was talking with Regan Smith. He had started on the pole and came away with a top-5 finish. That is what Busch should be able to do week in and week out. He called it a “regular” day. And he’s right, that should be the standard.
However, before he could finish his thoughts, he was almost run over by the 19-car coming off pit road. Truex Jr. finished P3 ahead of Busch, for what it’s worth.
“Just run me over, okay, that’s cool,” Busch said as they went by.
Former JGR driver getting into a small incident with his former organization? Or just a harmless accident? I think it was probably the latter, but maybe there is a little more between the 19 and 8 teams because of today’s race?
I think the big story here is the fact that Busch had a top-5 performance. He has struggled this year. His team has struggled. Seeing his pit crew have a good day overall is a bigger surprise than seeing Busch run well.
Denny Hamlin was the winner at Dover. He bested Kyle Larson in a tight race at the end of 400 miles.
Kyle Busch has best performance since Atlanta
A pole award and a top-5 finish are great for this 8 team. They have not had a top-5 since coming up short in that three-wide finish at Atlanta. Since then he has had four finishes of P20 or worse and only two top-10s. That was, until today.
I think there is another point to make here. It isn’t all good news, necessarily. While Busch had a quick car, he did not have a winning car. That sounds a lot like Kevin Harvick’s situation from last year. Fast cars, but not winning cars.
At least Rowdy and his team can look at this performance as a stepping stone to a win. I’m not ready to give this crew too much credit, but they have time to get things corrected and get back in Victory Lane.
A little drama after the race? Perhaps. A solid finish and something that Kyle Busch can build off of? Definitely. A step in the right direction, let’s hope they don’t take two steps back.
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