Prior to practice and qualifying at COTA, Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were both hit with prerace inspection penalties after failing twice. These NASCAR teams are going to get a bad pit selection now because of the issues in the inspection.
More bad news for Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came down, too. For failing twice, both teams will lose their car chief. That means Clay Alexander is out for the No. 8 team. Meanwhile, Travis Young is thrown out for the 47 group.
Neither team will get to select their pit stall. The good news is, they won’t have to go to the rear of the field although neither driver qualified very well. Busch will fire off P16. Stenhouse is down on Row 15 in P30.
These penalties are rather common in NASCAR. Teams are trying to get as much as they can on their qualifying and race trim, pushing the rules and boundaries. Sometimes, it is just too much and you fail inspection a couple of times.
For Kyle Busch, the important thing to focus on today is to get on and off pit road as clean as possible. This No. 8 team has had major issues all season long. This week there were no pit crew changes, so we will finally get consistency.
Rowdy was P2 last year as he chased Tyler Reddick at COTA. He didn’t get the job done then but could he find the magic formula this year?
Kyle Busch can bounce back from early season woes
Things have not gone Kyle Busch’s way this year. That is putting it lightly, too. Getting into trouble on the track, falling multiple spots on pit road, and just not having speed. There have been multiple issues and you can’t really pinpoint it to one thing or another.
At one point or another, Busch has to take over. He is a two-time champion, one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time. There are only so many things you can do in a slow car, but it feels like Busch hasn’t been able to maximize his equipment early in the year like he did last season.
Now, we might look back on these early season struggles as a thing of the past in a few months. Busch could rally off a series of wins and strong finishes and all of a sudden we’re talking about the 8 team being one of the best in the Cup Series.
Kyle Busch will not have a great pit stall selection. He will start in the middle of the field. But can he battle his way to a top-10 or top-5 finish and get back to having positive momentum this season?
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