NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Blown Opportunity For Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch is 187 points behind Jimmie Johnson...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted October 11, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Kyle Busch competes for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Scratch another attempt at a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship for Kyle Busch, who saw his title hopes all but expire when the motor in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota blew up on lap 155 of the Pepsi Max 400 at Auto Club Speedway.

That relegated Busch to a 35th-place finish and left him ninth in points, 187 back of leader Jimmie Johnson. In the six prior editions of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, no driver has won the championship after being this far behind at this point in the season.

“If anybody wasn't sure the championship was over, it's over now,” Busch said seconds after his powerplant expired.

Just 25 years old, Busch already has amassed an impressive 83 race victories in NASCAR’s top three divisions, winning at least 20 races in each of the last three seasons. Busch is the reigning NASCAR Nationwide Series champion and has won a record 12 races this year in that division, including Saturday’s event at ACS.

But it now seems certain that the Sprint Cup title Busch so covets will elude him for at least one more year.

Busch started Sunday’s race in 16th and cracked the top by lap 32. He led laps 58-61, but fell back to 28th after his crew had to repair an air hose that had come loose from a window duct. The JGR team made the fix during a pit stop after a lap-115 caution and Busch began to climb back through the field. He was 14th on lap 143, eighth on lap 149 and fifth on lap 153.

Then, disaster in the form of a blown engine.
Kyle Busch (18) and points leader Jimmie Johnson (48) battle Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“I wasn't feeling anything,” said Busch. “There was just a weird pop off of Turn 2 one time when I got to the throttle wide open and it blew the back of the hood seal between the hood and the cowl — it blew it up. So, I don't know what happened. I said, ‘Well, that didn't sound too good. I'm not sure if it's going to make it the rest of the race.’ Apparently, it didn't.”

It was a bitter pill to swallow after Busch and the team had such high hopes when the Chase for the Sprint Cup began.

“Real unfortunate for all these guys and the way we were coming back right there with that run,” said Busch. “We finally got some adjustment in the car that made it were it was heading back towards the front and it just blew up.”

Asked if he put the disappointment in perspective, Busch was succinct. “No, not really,” he said. “On to another year. It's over.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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