By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
A late-race caution and ensuing pit stops gave Kurt Busch the fresh tires he needed to earn a top-five finish at Kansas Speedway.
14 laps away from the scheduled distance of the Hollywood Casino 400, 2005 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Champion Busch was just outside the top-10. The No. 1 Advent Health Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 pitted with the bulk of the field.
As two successive caution jumbled the running order, Busch found himself in the outside line during the second overtime. Using the high lane’s momentum to his advantage, he whipped by Erik Jones, William Byron, and Martin Truex, Jr.
Kurt challenged his brother, Kyle Busch, for third before the checkered waved. Kurt took the checkered in fourth.
Busch explained that the fresh tires, combined with a restart in the outside lane, made the difference.
“We got fresh tires at the end and the outside lane really worked well for us. I was able to give it a lot of throttle on time and knife my way up to fourth place. It was nice to have Advent Health on our car today.
“We had a breast cancer survivor Nicole riding with us, and she got us a top-five. We struggled a little bit, didn’t get any stage points but you can’t be disappointed with a top-five.”
Although Busch was eliminated from the 2019 Playoff Grid several weeks ago, the recent struggles have not subsided for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver. He was unable to finish either of the first two stages inside the top-10.
The fourth-place finish is the sixth top-five for Busch this season and the 143rd of his career. He also now has 296 career top-10 finishes with four races left in the season.
Busch is 14th in the championship points standings, 99-points behind Brad Keselowski who is now the first driver on the outside, looking in.