NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Now Or Never For Kyle Busch?
Kyle Busch is eighth in points...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted October 15, 2011   Concord, NC
Kyle Busch stands in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 13, 2011 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo: Getty Images)
With four of 10 races down in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Kyle Busch is only 20 points out of first place, which is the closest to the front he’s ever been at this point in the season.

But there are a couple of problems.

First, there are seven drivers ahead of him, most of whom have been both faster and more consistent than he has been so far in the Chase.

Second, Busch has failed to post a single top-five finish in this year’s Chase, and he’s never won a Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, site of tonight’s Bank of America 500.

And the worst problem yet?

Busch will start at the back of the field tonight because his crew elected to make an engine change after practice concluded yesterday. It’s at least the 15th time this season that Joe Gibbs Racing has suffered a serious engine problem in one of its Toyotas.

Should Busch lose more ground tonight on Chase leaders Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson, his title hopes might be all but gone.

On the other hand, if he can rally back and finish in the top five as he has in five of his last eight Charlotte Cup starts, he might move right back into the title mix. High risk, high reward tonight.

Still, the engine problems are puzzling and troublesome to Busch and his teammates.

Asked if thought anything had changed since JGR announced that it will move from in-house engines to factory Toyota engines next year, Busch said, “You know that’s a fair question, but honestly I can’t answer that — I don’t know. I don’t know whether JGR has changed anything, I don’t believe they have. I would still assume that they still pour in the same amount of resources and energy into the finishing out this year and winning a championship, having the shot that we do. I don’t think that has any correlation. Mark (Cronquist, JGR engine builder) and his guys are all still there, everybody is still in the same spots, there’s nothing different.”

But what Busch does hope will change tonight is how he’s been running.

“Certainly, there was a point earlier this year about summertime with Kentucky and Michigan — we were class of the field those days,” said Busch. “ ... We haven’t had cars like that the last few weeks and whether that’s me not giving the right information to Dave (Rogers, crew chief) or us not being able to have the perfect setup — it takes so much to get everything exactly right.

“... Whether it’s bodies or engines or not having the right setup, pit strategy, having the guys on pit road have their head in the game — you know all that stuff — the driver having his head in the game. You know, it’s certainly you have to hit it all on a perfect day and we haven’t had that yet.”

Busch is guarded cautious about tonight.

“I’m not saying we couldn’t have it here in Charlotte,” he said. “I’d certainly love to have it the next four weeks and all of a sudden be the one everyone is worried about. We’ll play it one week by a time.”

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.
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