By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For only the third time in his career, Kyle Busch left the Daytona 500 with a top-five finish.
This year, that was a second-place result after losing the intense battle with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin for the spot in Victory Lane.
Leading 37 laps on the day, Busch’s No. 18 Toyota was a common contender near the front and was ahead of the rash of crashes to work with teammate Hamlin and see the end.
“We try to work together as much as we can,” Busch said of Hamlin. “You kind of see it sometimes at other racetracks, as well. But here at restrictor plates, when you have guys like that up front, you try to work together as much as you can. That situation kept presenting itself and it just was what it was.”
Despite the single-file racing during both the Clash and Gander RV Duels, Sunday’s 207-lapper saw double-wide racing for most of the event. Busch was glad to see it.
“There was some good racing today,” he said. “I thought the two-wide, sometimes three-wide action, sometimes guys would get loose and get shuffled out. It was pretty intense there a few times and I wouldn’t say that much needs to be done. Maybe we just don’t need to have races with 20 cars on the track, we need 40.”
With only Martin Truex JR. taken out in an accident, JGR capped off the first 1-2-3 finish for a team in the 500 in more than 20 years. That was goal No. 1 for Busch.
“I’d much rather see a JGR car in Victory Lane more than anybody else,” he said. “So, I felt like keeping our strength in numbers lined up was going to be the best we could be.
“And then he [Hamlin] wanted to go back into teammate preservation mode again. Kind of funny how it swaps back and forth a little bit, but it is what it is.”
With one of the best cars of the day, Busch realizes it was perhaps his best shot at winning the Great American Race in his 15th attempt.
“Yeah, this was probably the best shot to win,” he said. “Being up front that much at the end of the race, having the track position. That one restart where Denny wanted to race, I took the bottom because I felt like having the No. 14 [Clint Bowyer] behind me. I felt like that was going to be a good lane for me to be in.
“Then they came off [Turn] 2 and they all spread out. That’s when the No. 14 got crashed, and then the No. 11 had the lead because he was ahead at the time. That kind of cost us.”
Disappointment aside, a special tribute was held Sunday when all JGR cars honored the passing of J.D. Gibbs, son of team owner Joe Gibbs, last month.
“It’s obviously very good and a boost of confidence,” he said. “Losing J.D., it certainly is a very bittersweet situation for myself because I’d have much rather have been the one to win the race. But overall, you couldn’t be more thrilled for all the 500 people back at Joe Gibbs Racing who knew and respected and looked up to J.D. for the person that he was and for the relationships that he gave all of us.”