Busch hopes to gain momentum from strong Michigan performance

Kyle Busch is still on a quest to reach 20 consecutive winning seasons, but his Richard Childress Racing team showed in Michigan that they may be getting closer to that goal.

After running in the top 10 for much of the race, Busch used a two-tire strategy during the final pit stop of Stage 3 to finish fourth in Monday’s FireKeepers Casino 400. He finished in the top five for the first time since April at Dover Motor Speedway.

It was a much-needed result for the driver and team, ending a string of tough weekends dating back to May at Darlington Raceway. At the time, Busch was 12th in the points standings and looked like a playoff contender, but an 11-race streak of 24.0 finishes — including five DNFs — dropped the two-time champion to 18th in the standings and well out of playoff reach without a win.

Monday’s two-tire decision was made to give Busch a chance to win. He has won at least one Cup race in every season since 2005. For a while, it looked like Busch might continue that streak. He took the net lead after a short stop, narrowly ahead of William Byron and Tyler Reddick. But Busch couldn’t hold on, losing the top spot before his next pit stops and falling to the bottom of the top five.

“I would like to get out with an eight-second lead,” Busch joked. “That would help a little bit. We didn’t have that much of an advantage.”

Nevadan ultimately used double overtime to get back into fourth place, giving his team a solid weekend with one of their best results of the year. It wasn’t a perfect weekend, but it was certainly the best the No. 8 team had looked in months.

“I just needed a little more from the Lucas Oil Chevrolet,” Busch said afterward. “We just fell short by a tenth at each end, not being able to get through the corners as fast as we needed to (to) be able to get to 0.00s and teens. I think I got to 0.30s.

“Overall, just a positive weekend and better speed, in the lead and in any case a chance. We were running in the top ten all day. Randall and the guys did really well to get us those two tires, give us better track position and just try to hold them off as best as we could.”

Going forward, Busch will do everything he can to pick up another victory and extend his streak to 20 straight years with a win — especially in the next two weeks, as that could result in more layoffs.

The goal: build on Michigan’s good streak and maintain expectations.

“That’s how we expect to run,” Busch said. “That’s how we want to run. We want to be up front, in the top 10, and have opportunities to be successful. If I had to say, (we had) maybe a seventh or eighth car today, and we got fourth. Good pit calls helped us do that, and just making some good moves on those late restarts helped us do that.

“Nothing from today can translate to Daytona or Darlington — in terms of setup, vehicle dynamics, things like that. But (we have) good momentum going in the right direction. Just keep it up.”