Two-Tire Pit Strategy Nets Kyle Busch First Top Five Finish Since April
Finally. Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team had a fast car and were able to close out Monday's NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway with the finish they deserved. Busch wheeled his Lucas Oil Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to a fourth-place finish in the race, his best finish since Dover Motor Speedway in April.
RELATED: 2024 NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan Results
The top-five run, one position shy of Busch's season-best finish of third which he achieved in a three-wide photo finish for the win at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February, was the culmination of a complete race from top to bottom for the No. 8 team, something that has been a rare happening for the group this season.
"This is how we would expect to run. This is how we want to run," Busch said. "We want to run up front, top 10s, have opportunities to excel."
Sunday and Monday in the Irish Hills of Michigan, the Las Vegas native was excellent behind the wheel as he led three times for 24 laps and won Stage 2, the much-maligned pit crew took care of business on pit road, and crew chief Randall Burnett made excellent calls from atop the pit box.
In fact, Burnett's final call of the day was a gutsy two-tire pit call on the final pit stop of the race on Lap 166. The move saved Busch, who was running solidly in eighth prior to the green flag pit cycle, a lot of time in the pits. By saving roughly four to five seconds on pit road, it allowed the driver of the No. 8 machine to be in a position to race for the eventual race win as he came out of the pits ahead of William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Tyler Reddick.
While Busch would hold the four-tire brigade off for several laps, Reddick would blast by Busch in Turn 1 on Lap 176. Reddick, who drives the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, would assume the lead when the pit sequence was completed and would go on to win the race.
Busch ultimately wouldn't score his first win of the 2024 season on Monday, but he left the day with his head held high, thankful for his good run. But the racer in him wished the lead he inherited with Burnett's pit call was just a little larger so he could have held on for the win.
"Yeah, I wish I came out with about an eight-second lead. That might have helped a little bit," Busch quipped. "We didn't quite have that gap."
The 39-year-old racer credited the late-race two-tire call and the moves he made on the track on the final overtime restart of the race for helping him maximize his finish on the day.
"Really good call by Randall and the guys to get us that two tires, get us more track position, and try to hold them off as best we could," Busch explained after the race. "Overall net good day."
The excellent finish was a desperately needed reprieve for the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, who had been in a free-fall over the last few months.
10 races ago, Busch was in a position to point his way into the Playoffs as he was 12 points above the cutline following the Coca-Cola 600 in May. While they weren't setting the world on fire, Busch and his team were doing enough to be part of the Playoff field. Then, the wheels fell off.
In the seven races after the Coca-Cola 600, Busch suffered five DNFs, and had just one top-10 finish, a ninth-place effort at the Chicago Street Course.
It was a horrid stretch, but honestly, it's felt like Kyle Busch and the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Cup Series program have had a dark cloud hanging over them for the majority of the 2024 season. Even when the team seemingly has things finally going its way, another shoe drops and flips the script.
Last week was a perfect example. Austin Dillon broke through at Richmond Raceway to score the first win of the season for the race team. However, even a race win didn't go as planned for RCR as they are now embroiled in the NASCAR penalty appeals process after the sanctioning body stripped the automatic Playoff berth attached to Dillon's win due to the driver's over-aggressive moves to pull off the win on the final lap.
Dillon and his team are set to have their appeal heard by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel on Wednesday.
While the Richmond win seems like a net loss, currently, it truly feels like that run at the 0.750-mile short track in Virginia has galvanized the Richard Childress Racing team. Can it continue? That remains to be seen, but Dillon and the No. 3 team were among the fastest cars at Richmond. A week later, Busch and the No. 8 team lay down their best performance in their last 13 races.
While Richmond and Michigan are vastly different tracks than Daytona International Speedway and Darlington Raceway, which will serve as the final two races of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Busch seemed more confident than we've seen him just about all season in his post-race interviews.
"Overall, nothing can translate from today into Daytona or Darlington setup-wise, vehicle dynamics, that sort of stuff. Good momentum rolling in the right direction, just keep that going," Busch said.
If the newfound RCR momentum can be carried into Daytona, and then again at Darlington, who knows? Maybe Busch can snag a win before the end of the season to extend his 'consecutive seasons with a win' streak to 20. And even crazier, if Busch and his team can parlay the momentum into a win at Daytona or Darlington, it would completely erase what has been a miserable year and they would be Playoff contenders -- provided there aren't NASCAR sanctions attached to the win, of course.
With two races left for them to make it into the Playoffs, don't count Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team out just yet.
TOBY CHRISTIE