Kyle Busch and Monster Energy came close to accomplishing a fifth-season win at the soon to be halfway point in the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ 2014 year, when a late-race caution forced one last restart that proved difficult for the No. 54 Camry who went from first place to a third-place finish Friday night on Kentucky’s 1.5-mile Speedway. Although not the finish this veteran unit strived for, the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) team has now recorded 4 wins, 14 top-five finishes, 4 poles and 880 laps led in 15 races this year. Four of the victories and 12 of the top-five finishes have been driven at the hands of Busch, the series’ all-time winningest driver.
The weekend began with a NASCAR implemented test session on Wednesday, which saw Busch within the top-15 on the speed charts but not exhibiting the strong setup they expected for their Toyota Camry. Known for its extreme bumps, Sparta’s paved track tends to be a real challenge for teams to decide whether they set the car up for speed or for handling over the bumps. Busch preferred handling, over the bumps, and searched for more rear grip in the car. Two subsequent practice sessions on Thursday evening and then on Friday morning gave the team enough time to fine-tune their black machine in preparation for qualifying. The team was pleased with the final setup of their Camry but knew one competitor in particular would be strong, the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford.
Earlier in race day, Friday, Busch narrowly missed the pole-qualifying position with a second-place spot secured at 174.250mph, just 0.188 off the first-place grab by the No. 22 of Brad Keselowski at Penske Racing. This put the Monster Energy Camry in row one to take the green flag for the 200-lap John R. Elliott HERO Campaign 300 event. Busch maintained second place but relayed to his team a difficulty with turning the car specifically in turn three. “Turns one and two, we’re as good as Brad (Keselowski, No. 22), but turn three I’m loose in, tight center off. I can’t arc it the way I want,” described the series veteran.
Under an initial-event caution period at lap 41, the No. 54 group had their first opportunity to replenish Sunoco fuel and Goodyear tires and make a car adjustment to help Busch with his turn-three handling. As he entered his pit stall, however, Busch had trouble with the brakes grabbing in time and slid too far forward in the pit box. After backing up into the mandated space and conducting their pit stop, the JGR team was scored in sixth place to take the green-flag restart.
That didn’t deter Busch, who drove from sixth place to fourth place to third place over the next few laps, then focused his attention back to the front of the field. Another race caution at lap 78 offered a second opportunity for the No. 54 team to make car adjustments. Busch told his crew that he “liked” the car then pitted on lap 82 to replenish four tires with slight air pressure adjustments to strengthen the changes the team made in the first pit-road visit. During this yellow-flag cycle, some competitors didn’t pit and some took two tires which put the Monster Energy machine in sixth place to restart.
Once again, Busch took advantage of the compact field and passed four cars to overtake the second-place spot at the race’s halfway point. “That’s perfect! Keep doing what you are doing,” advised crew chief Adam Stevens over the radio to his driver just before the next event caution occurred. “The car’s turning much better,” Busch responded then added, “We can’t go looser.”
Despite a few rain sprinkles over some parts of the track, NASCAR resumed the race and Busch focused attention on taking over the lead. “Nice work right there, keep it up,” described Stevens once more. Then a significant shift in race momentum happened when one more pit stop was conducted, under caution, on lap 148 by the No. 54 team. While the JGR unit conducted a fast pit cycle, their competitors and the race leader, the No. 22 team, was tracked as speeding on pit road, which would afford them a penalty and put them further back in the field upon race restart.
At lap 155 and after cars cycled through pit road visits, the No. 54 team was back in the race lead at green-flag restart until another race caution occurred at lap 169. “I’m just waiting on it, I’m tight man,” Busch described to his team, discouraged about the handling of his machine late in the race. Stevens encouraged him, “Keep doing what you’re doing!”
What occurred next was the most exciting battle of the night when upon green-flag restart the No. 54 Toyota and the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick, went toe-to-toe around the track for three full laps, alongside each other. The battle was intense and Busch ultimately edged Harvick to maintain the lead for what was presumed to be the final few laps of the race. Then with 10 laps remaining, a final event caution flag waved due to one car scraping the wall and the potential for debris on the race track. Busch knew the restart would again be difficult to hold off the No. 5 car and other potential chargers. His anticipation was correct, with five laps to go, after green-flag restart Busch relinquished the lead to the No. 5 car and then battled to maintain second place from the No. 22, but ultimately resided in third once the checkered-flag dropped.
When asked about his night post-race Busch commented, “We didn’t have the car to beat so shouldn’t be upset with the third, but there at the end we had the opportunity to win the race and through the middle part of the race I passed the five car and just didn’t have enough on the final restarts, unfortunately, not enough speed for the first five or so laps after a restart and then I could start inching my way away a little bit, but not enough there to hold Kevin (Harvick, No. 5 car) off he just flat out drove right by me on the restart, when we were all wide open.”
The No. 54 Monster Energy team owned by J.D. Gibbs maintains first place in the Owner’s Point standings, now leading the Penske Racing No. 22 Ford by 48 points.
Harvick won the event, his 42nd series victory in 309 races, followed by Keselowski, Busch, Paul Menard and Ryan Blaney. There were seven caution periods for 30 laps of the race along with eight lead changes across 12 drivers. Busch led the field one time for 38 laps and earned Joe Gibbs Racing the 3M Lap Leader Award.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series returns to Daytona (Fl.) International Speedway on July 4 for the Subway Firecracker 250 with the television broadcast starting at 7p.m. on ESPN2. Busch will make his 13th start behind the wheel of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Monster Energy Camry.
KBM PR
