Kyle Busch finished fifth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevy Rock ‘N’ Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway and missed the Chase by just 8 points, the smallest margin in history. (Photo: Getty Images)
Heading into Saturday night’s Chevy Rock ‘N’ Roll 400, 10 drivers were legitimately in contention for the final eight spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which meant two drivers inevitably would come up short.
And those two turned out to be Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch, who suffered through very different, albeit equally challenging, defeats at Richmond International Raceway.
Kenseth came into the weekend 20 points ahead of 13th-place Brian Vickers, but had an awful weekend. He qualified 28th at RIR and finished 25th, never showing much speed at all at any point in the two days. Kenseth ended the night 14th in points, 38 points out of the Chase as Vickers was the last man in.
Busch, on the other hand, put up a valiant struggle, finishing fifth in the race and missing the Chase by just 8 points, the smallest margin in history.
And while these were doubtless bitter pills to swallow for the two drivers to swallow, both were classy in defeat.
“This is disappointing how we ran here the last three or four times for some reason,” said Kenseth, who won the first two races of the season but has had a subpar season since. “But really since California, we went to Vegas, and broke in the second lap or first lap and everything has really been downhill since there so I can't say I'm really surprised that had we didn't make it. I'm really disappointed we didn't make it but we just didn't perform good enough.”
