By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor
Kyle Busch notched his 10th top five of 2018 at Michigan International Speedway (MIS), retaining his points lead and climbing to within seven top fives of matching his career-best mark as the 2018 season nears the midway point.
His end result was standard. The road there was anything but it.
The 2011 Michigan winner entered Sunday morning appearing to be one of the favorites to take a victory at the end of the FireKeepers Casino 400. Busch had qualified third, and he’d paired with Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. to win 19 of the 24 preceding races.
All seemed to be well, but then came pre-race inspection.
JGR were set back heavily during inspection when three of their four cars were observed with unapproved splitters – an infraction that will cost them their car chiefs at Sonoma Raceway. As a result of the failure Busch and teammates Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones were forced to start Sunday’s race at the tail-end of the field.
Busch was 39th when the field took the green flag. While it took him just 15 laps to enter the top 20, moving up through the top half of the field proved difficult.
At the end of Stage 1 the 33-year-old found himself in 12th. He quickly jumped into the top 10 on the ensuing stage, but it took until Lap 87 – just before the midway point of Stage 2 – for Busch to enter the top five.
A pass of Paul Menard in the final laps of Stage 2 allowed Busch to finish the stage in fourth. That would match his highest running position on the day.
The 16-year veteran restarted the final stage in fifth, and passed only one car before the final caution flag flew on Lap 131. Rain halted Busch’s rise in fourth, ending the race prematurely following a red flag after 133 of the scheduled 200 laps.
The run tied Busch’s best result at MIS in the past five years, giving the 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion his first top five in the Irish Hills during the current elimination playoff era.
While he couldn’t deliver one the wins that have defined his season, Busch did carry the torch for Toyota on a day that only saw Fords go places. Busch was the only non-Blue Oval in the top eight finishing positions.
“I thought we had something for (Ford), and if it was going to be a little bit hotter and sunnier today, I felt like we were going to be really good,” he said afterward. “That just wasn’t the conditions for today, so chilly and cool and lots of grip, and that was better for all those guys, but we gave it a hard-fought fight and came home with what we could there – a fourth. Not too shabby.
“I thought we had third, and then Kurt (Busch) blew my doors off on the straightaway. We’ve just got to get better there and try to make it up and be able to put on a fight here later on this year.”
Busch leaves Michigan sitting atop the point standings, with a 75-point edge on second-place Kevin Harvick.