Kyle Busch Monster Energy No. 54 Second Place at Bristol Night Race

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver Kyle Busch and the No. 54 Monster Energy team secured their 19th top-five finish of the season Friday night, although it didn’t come with the victory lane visit they were used to. This Joe Gibbs Racing team had shown consistent dominance at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, known as the Last Great Colosseum, with Busch who earned checkered flag grabs in the last three races, sweeping both 2013 events and the spring 2014 race. What would prove to be dominance Friday night, with a fourth win in four races, turned out to be a disappointment, however, when after leading a race-high 161 of 300 laps, Busch was challenged on a final restart and lost the lead. The Monster Energy machine would be scored in second place.

During initial on-track activity Thursday at ‘The World’s Fastest Half Mile,’ the race team immediately felt the No. 54 Toyota Camry would be a car to contend for the win. “It feels good in the turns and handling,” Busch described after the first few laps. The team ran two practice sessions through the hot afternoon, pacing the second-fastest lap times in race trim, while others had set up for qualifying runs. Overall the 2014 four-time race winners felt they had a fast chassis to tackle the historic .533-mile oval on Friday night.

And the team’s prediction was fulfilled. During the Friday morning qualifying session, Busch posted a 125.142 mph, 15.333-second lap earning the No. 54 team a front row, pole-starting position. It was Busch’s fifth pole of the year and the team’s seventh, with two additional first-place qualifying efforts completed by driver Sam Hornish Jr. in Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington. Busch now carries 41 recorded pole-qualifying positions over his career of 287 Nationwide Series races.

Upon taking the green-flag Friday night, after a brief rain delay, Busch wasted no time extending his lead at the front of the field. Because of the earlier rain-soaked track, a competition caution waved by NASCAR at lap 60 so teams could check their tire wear. Busch reported to his crew, “The car is pretty good. I have aero issues more than anything – losing the nose.” The JGR team serviced the No. 54 machine on pit road and gave Busch four fresh Goodyear tires, while other competitors took only fuel to try and gain position on the Monster Energy machine that would restart in seventh place.

At lap 73 of the 300-circuit event, Busch had moved to fifth place where he remained through a series of yellow-flag cautions. The No. 5 car of Kevin Harvick challenged the No. 54 Toyota machine over several laps, and Busch was successful in his advance back towards the front of the field. He overtook third place by lap 100. An event caution at lap 111 offered Busch time to tell his crew the air box, a device that provides cool air through the driver’s helmet, had died. Already a muggy night after a heavy rain storm, the Monster Energy athlete would prevail. Subsequent on-track challenges came from the No. 3 of Ty Dillon and the No. 42 of Kyle Larson, but Busch remained focused on returning to the front of the field.

At lap 144 Busch was in second place and described to crew chief Adam Stevens that his car had “lack of grip.” In a scary moment at lap 173, Busch quickly communicated, “Get ready, right-rear tire,” and the team was prepared in the pit stall if a tire went down on the No. 54 machine. Two laps later, spotter Tony Hirschman communicated back to Busch, “the right-rear tire looks good, let ‘em come back to you.” The hard battling Busch conducted laps earlier heated the tires which gave Busch that loose condition he felt.

A subsequent pit stop at lap 187, under yellow, offered the team pit road time to put fresh tires on their Toyota Camry. Within the next 10 laps, Busch would regain the lead he had at the start of the race and maintain it over the next 90 laps. Not traditional for this race, several more caution flags occurred within the last 50 laps while Busch maintained his first-place spot with each restart.

It was the final restart with seven laps to go that ultimately gave the Toyota machine trouble. As leader of the race, Busch would set when the field accelerates coming to the green flag, during a certain area of the track designated by lines on the outer wall. The field is to follow the leader as he or she sets that speed in the ‘start zone.’ Unfortunately for Busch, the field bunched up on him, anxious to charge. The No. 22 Penske Racing Ford challenged Busch for that top spot while the Monster Energy machine attempted to ‘start’ the field on Busch’s lead. The momentum shift allowed the No. 22 of Ryan Blaney to overtake the lead and maintain it through the checkered-flag finish. Busch would end up with a second-place finish, his fourth runner-up finish in the last four races behind the wheel of the No. 54 Monster Energy machine.

When interviewed post-race about his difficulty with the final restart, an upset Busch described, “The leader is at the biggest disadvantage on restarts.  I know when I want to go but everybody else is pushing me.  My rear tires aren’t on the ground and you can’t go anywhere.”

Busch continued his remarks regarding the team’s strength at Bristol, “I had a really good car.  The Monster Energy Camry was really fast especially on the front side of runs, being able to make time on people and Adam Stevens (crew chief) and the boys did a really good job.  We lost track position there early with guys coming early and then just taking fuel only on the competition caution and kind of leap-frogging us a little bit there. But, we made our way back up a little bit and then couldn’t get by (Kyle) Larson on a single lane race track — it’s pathetic.  But, once I did get a position on him, kind of sort of you’ve just got to try to move the guy out of the way so I kind of forced him high and got clear of him and then that was sort of going to be the race until that last restart when my rear tires weren’t on the race track and couldn’t accelerate forward.”

Blaney made the victory-lane trip, his second win in 24 series starts. Although Busch recorded a race high 161 of 300 laps led, over two segments, he came home in second place. Chase Elliott, Ty Dillon and Regan Smith completed the top-five finishers. There were 10 caution periods for 57 laps of the race along with nine lead changes across five drivers.

The No. 54 Monster Energy Camry owned by J.D. Gibbs remains second in the Owner’s Point standings, 24 points from the lead. 

KBM PR