Kyle Busch expresses frustration after P2 finish at Daytona
Last night at Daytona, Kyle Busch was left wondering what could have been… again. Another bad beat for the two-time NASCAR champion. Between Atlanta last year and Daytona this year, Busch has been so close at the superspeedways, but no win to show for it.
Kyle Busch had his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell pushing him. Those are two talented drivers working together to get to the finish line. Then, on the outside, you have the young, unproven duo of Harrison Burton. Not a win between them in the Cup Series, and less than three full seasons.
Retzlaff was in his first-ever Daytona Cup Series race. He also happened to be in a car with ties to Richard Childress Racing. On the backstretch, Retzlaff gave a HUGE push to Burton. It put the 21 car out front of Busch, and Retzlaff failed to clear the 8 car.
From there, Burton blocked Busch and raced to the line. The 62 car was unable to keep momentum on the outside line and fell to 7th overall.
However, Kyle Busch isn’t blaming the 21-year-old racer for his loss. Even if he was frustrated after the finish.
“It’s just frustrating. We’ve led races here at Daytona going into the last restart and haven’t been able to pull off a victory,” Busch said, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “Not sure what it is; what I’m doing wrong or what it is that I’m missing. It seems like the energy broke up off of Turn 2 and the No. 20 (Christopher Bell) got crooked and wasn’t on my rear bumper the way we needed to be. The outside lane just went by. I wanted to get up in front of the No. 21 (Harrison Burton) because I knew the momentum was coming there. But I knew the No. 20 was a better friend. It just didn’t work out.”
Kyle Busch did all he could do. He even gave a bump to Burton down the front. It wasn’t enough. Short of wrecking the 23-year-old driver, Busch had to accept the finish.
Point the finger at Parker Retzlaff all you want. It was not his job, when he signed up for this race, to make Busch win. His job was to put the Beard Motorsports 62 Chevy in the front with a couple of laps to go, and then roll the dice. He did just that, and any driver would have done the same.
Kyle Busch shouldn’t be in a position where he needs a Daytona win to make the playoffs. Yet, that is where this Richard Childress Racing team is at.