By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
More than most weekends in 2018, Kyle Busch was the favorite to score victory Sunday at Watkins Glen International in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Posting quick speeds in practice and qualifying second, it may have been a Kyle Busch Show in upstate New York.
And after taking the lead from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin on only the race’s second lap, many thought it was his day to show off some speed.
It was… but not for the victory.
Leading 31 laps in the Go Bowling at The Glen, Busch was soon under attack from second-place Chase Elliott, who eventually passed the No. 18 Toyota to win Stage 2.
Despite Busch’s stage loss to the No. 9, the 2013 track winner felt confident he had a better car for the long run.
“I felt we were equal to him — maybe a tick better,” Busch said of Elliott. “That time we got a run on me, I let him go and he drove away from me surprisingly. Then the next restart, I had enough to hold him.”
The back-and-forth battle took a big hit for Busch when he had a pit road mishap during a lap-55 caution. Busch was not given enough fuel for the remainder of the race, causing the No. 18 to pit again and restart at the rear of the field with less than 30 laps to go.
“It’s not what we needed there to run with the [Nos.] 9 and 78,” he said. “We had a fast racecar, we knew that from the first lap of practice. We just didn’t execute all day.”
In a year that has been dominated by Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr., mistakes haven’t been natural from this ‘Big Three.’ However, it is what perhaps cost Busch a shot to battle Elliott for the win.
“That’s what it takes,” he said of executing. “Two years in a row we had pit road failures, mishaps, back luck, and all we can come out of here is with a podium.”
Indeed, despite the setback, Busch rallied to finish third, passing JGR teammates Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez for the position. It was the second straight race the threesome has finished in the top five.
We had to restart in the back, drove our ass off, no cautions all the way up to third,” he said. “That’s it.”