Kyle Busch looks on the bright side after P5 finish in Quaker State 400

For most of the night in Atlanta, he was quiet. Kyle Busch ended up coming in P5 in the rain-shortened NASCAR Quaker State 400 as he searches for another win. At one point, we saw Busch in a small incident with Noah Gragson. However, he managed to avoid disaster and given his recent past at Atlanta, he’ll take the top-5 and move on to New Hampshire.

Kyle Busch has three wins on the season and has put together a pretty quiet second stretch of the year since the All-Star Race. He isn’t making huge waves, but maintaining his consistency.

It was a wild night for Rowdy in the Quaker State 400. However, given the circumstances, Busch is happy with what he brought home from Atlanta. Another top-5 makes it four of the last five races and the last seven races in the top-10.

“Yeah I mean all things considered I’ve wrecked in every race here and I missed three of those wrecks today and didn’t get any,” Busch said to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “I’m out of here in one piece, top five. Congrats to William [Byron] although I hate William won because he’s one of the guys we’re chasing in points right now trying to get ahead of and also the bonus points that we all want for the playoffs, he’s collecting more of those which is not good for any of us.”

The mixed feelings of Kyle Busch after his fifth-place finish Sunday at Atlanta: pic.twitter.com/5BSEujNWpF

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 10, 2023

There is a little bit of subtle confidence there for Kyle Busch. While he would have liked to get a win on Sunday, he knows he could have had a DNF on multiple occasions. Things turned out for the better this time for Busch and he came out on the other side third in the points standings.

Busch only trails Martin Truex Jr. and the new points leader, William Byron.

Kyle Busch is on a hot streak this summer

The first half of the season was up and down for Kyle Busch. He grabbed a win in the second race of the season at Fontana. However, he had just one top-5 finish between that win and his surprise win at Talladega. Of course, anything can happen on a superspeedway.

Since finishing P35 at Kansas, Busch and his No. 8 team have been on a tear. Darlington P7, Charlotte P6, Gateway P1, Sonoma P2, Nashville P9, Chicago P5, and Atlanta P5. This is likely the best stretch of races Busch has had since the summer of 2021 around the same time.

The next stretch of seven races will be a real test. During this stretch from New Hampshire to Daytona last year, Busch had just two top-10 finishes. Of course, the infamous DQ at Pocono after finishing P2 behind Denny Hamlin led to a Chase Elliott victory.

Pocono is a race Busch could win. He’s been great at Watkins Glen in the past. He’s won at New Hampshire in the past. Richmond is a track he has a lot of success at. Even Michigan, where he has just one career win from 2011, is a track he has performed well at. Five top-5 finishes at that track since 2018.

Kyle Busch is in a position that I think he wants to be in. It will be hard as hell to take the regular season championship and bonus playoff points away from Byron or Truex Jr. However, he has set himself up nicely to have a ton of momentum going into the playoffs.