CONCORD, N.C. – If Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway was an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event, Kyle Busch would have celebrated a win as “best in class.”
Busch and his patriotic No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry finished third in the longest race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, unable to challenge a dominant Kyle Larson in the closing stages.
The two-time Cup Series champion was 10.228 seconds adrift of the race-winning Chevrolet wheeled by Larson, and he was the only driver all night long who could consistently run with the four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets that filled out the top five at the finish.
With Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Alex Bowman running first, second, fourth and fifth, respectively, Busch was left scratching his head at what he could have done differently to better challenge for the victory.
“We had nothing for the Hendrick cars,” Busch admitted. “Overall, this was just a really good night for us. This M&M’s Camry was fast. Ben (Beshore, crew chief) and the boys did a really, really good job. I appreciate all that we had – it was enough to go out there and run strong.
“I tried to break them up. I didn’t want them to finish 1-2-3-4 again, so at least I was able to get in the middle of them,” Busch added. “Overall, we did a good job. … We had a solid night tonight. It’s good for the points and hopefully we can keep this momentum rolling.”
Asked by SPEED SPORT what Busch felt his car was missing compared to the Hendrick Chevrolets, the Las Vegas native didn’t hesitate before offering his response.
“[We needed] overall raw speed,” he noted. “When we were running there through some of the middle part of the race, we were wide open from one and two and just barely breathing it through three and four. You need to be wide open all the way around to complain about raw speed, but realistically, you just need to go from that corner (four) to that corner (one) faster and that comes down to straight line speed.
“They (Hendrick Motorsports) were fast, they look good under the hood and they had good aero too.”
Busch also tipped that he wasn’t surprised at the jump in performance and results that Rick Hendrick’s team has made from last season to this season. Good drivers, he noted, will do that for a team.
“They’ve certainly gone to work and done their homework,” Busch said. “They’ve also plugged in a superstar driver to one of their cars. Chase (Elliott) is no slouch, William (Byron) is really good, but Kyle (Larson) is arguably one of the best. I think they’ve done a really good job obviously of getting good equipment, good pieces, and Kyle is making the most of it.”
Going forward, even as Joe Gibbs Racing looks for the key to the speed necessary to challenge Hendrick Motorsports on a more-consistent level, Busch feels that the organization is on an upward trajectory.
Now, it’s just a matter of making gains week by week.
“I’d like to think we’re moving in the right direction. We’ve had some strong runs and we’ve had some runs that were better than the finishes that we got out of them,” said Busch. “Overall, we had a really good piece – we were strong from start to finish there. We just kept trying to make some little tweaks to it and make it a little bit better.
“I don’t know what happened on our final pit stop. We got out in front of those guys (Elliott and Byron), but they had the momentum to get by me, I guess, and I was just too loose and too sloppy on the front side with some speed.
“Once we got rolling there, we got a lot better and we able to run them back down, but we just couldn’t get back by them and had to settle for what we had. We’ll take this and keep moving forward.”
Busch leaves Charlotte Motor Speedway eighth in the aggregated driver standings and eighth on the playoff grid through 15 of 26 regular-season races.
It’s not where he wants to be, nor where the team needs to be, and Busch knew it as he offered his parting comment.
“If (Kyle) Larson was a 10 tonight, we’re about a seven, so we’ve got some work to do.”
"best" - Google News
May 31, 2021 at 11:30AM
https://ift.tt/34vK5RA
Third For Busch Is 'Best In Class' At Charlotte - SPEED SPORT - SPEED SPORT
"best" - Google News
https://ift.tt/34IFv0S
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Third For Busch Is 'Best In Class' At Charlotte - SPEED SPORT - SPEED SPORT"
Post a Comment