Richard Childress explains urgency behind Kyle Busch oil leak, shouts out Hendrick, Trackhouse for helping
Kyle Busch’s day at Pocono Raceway has already gone sideways before the race has even gotten underway.
Busch, who was previously dealing with steering issues during Saturday’s practice session, will now start the Great American Getaway 400 from the rear of the field after his No. 8 Chevrolet began leaking oil on pit road. His team had to take the car back to the garage to repair the issue and according to team owner Richard Childress, RCR had some help from other teams in getting Busch’s car ready to race Sunday.
“It didn’t leak yesterday, it didn’t leak this morning,” Childress said. “Pulled it on the line and one of the guys seen a little leak under it. Here’s the little crack. It’s kind of spongy all the way through here, don’t know if it’s the faulty line or what. But you can see right there where the crack come through. We’re in the middle of it right now but these cars, you have to drop everything from out under them. All the under panel and everything. It’s gonna be close but we’re gonna make it.
“… We gotta start in the rear so we gotta change a lot of strategy that we worked out this morning. So, now you just go from there and I’m sure with all our guys we’ll figure it out. Had a lot of other teams give us a hand, some of the Hendrick guys and Trackhouse and we all jumped in there and got it on the line.”
Kyle Busch airs out frustration after oil leak on pit road sends him to rear of grid at Pocono
It’s the last thing Busch needed at a point in the season where he must win to qualify for the playoffs, but on par for his 2024. Busch is currently in the midst of the worst stretch of his professional career. In the last six races, he has four DNFs and just one top-10 finish. Busch is riding a career-long 41-race winless streak.
“Yeah, no question, I mean, definitely,” Busch said about his struggles this season. “I don’t think you and hem and haw or dance around that answer of that question because it is frustrating, but um, there’s a process here, and you know, there’s a big circle of success that’s happened in this sport. There’s guys at the top. Then guys at the bottom. They circle back around to the top. I was at the top for a long, long time, and felt really, really good to be there.
“So, now just in a different realm and trying to figure out how to, how to climb that. It’s way easier to fall than it is to crawl back up. So, we’ll just keep figuring out what those ways are.”