By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
Kurt Busch left the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway as the highest finishing driver from the Chevrolet camp.
Despite finishing third, Busch understood that he needed to catch Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kyle Larson.
“It was great watching Larson up front I knew I needed to drive harder to catch him,” he said. “Our balance was a little bit looser and then the track came to us a little bit better at the end, so it was a good day for us to carry that banner.
“It was really good. To find that looseness and tightness balance. We had long runs, we had short runs, we went through a lot today. So, we need to just sit down in the board room and really debrief. What we have, where the speed was in the No. 42 early on and be able to capitalize late.”
Busch hit a milestone when the green flag flew. He made his 650th start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. With a significant milestone and the second race with a new team, Busch was happy with how he ran for 500 miles.
“I could say that wasn’t anything fantastic or exciting, but it really was,” he said. “To finish third on our second outing together and to run with the who’s-who of the sport just shows Ganassi’s got the right stuff. (Kyle) Larson had a tough break. We called a good break to get on the lead lap with (Joey) Logano and to race in the top 5 at the end; but all in all, for us to get gelled together to learn what loose and tight was.”
“Man, I just struggled in Turns 3 and 4 and that’s where I got arm-wrestled. They took us but hey, we’re Top 5 in this kind of run. Thanks to Monster Energy and ComSurv was on our car this weekend. Chip (Ganassi) was standing right there. Thanks to everybody. That’s a good third place finish. We’ll take it.”
Busch heads to his home track Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend.