Kyle Busch and the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota team captured a third-place finish at Chicagoland (Ill.) Speedway in Joliet Saturday afternoon, the driver’s 10th top-10 finish in 11 races on the 1.5-mile oval in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The result came from a third-place qualifying position, followed by a strong 141 of 200 laps in the lead position. The Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) team thought they might have a repeat finish happening, like their dominant 2013 run, but a late-race pit stop affected the running order enough that they couldn’t recuperate.
The Monster Energy team was anxious for a Chicago return, having raced there earlier this season with driver Sam Hornish Jr., who qualified sixth but without the opportunity to complete a full race after his engine expired on lap seven, leaving Hornish in 36-place. At this race one year ago it was a different story when Monster Energy athlete Busch captured victory from the pole-qualifying position, followed by an incredible 195 of 200 laps in the lead position, across the start/finish line, then victory to the Las-Vegas native, his 61st career win and 50th series victory behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry.
Good signs were evident right away this weekend when Busch and team ran quick laps over two practice sessions on Friday. The JGR driver felt comfortable with his car setup, telling the crew early in the final practice session, he was happy with the balance. The three-time Chicago winner knew what he felt in the seat of the No. 54 was right, and Saturday morning he proved it was strong, when he paced the track at 179.593 mph over 30.068 seconds, which earned him a third-place qualifying spot.
The green flag dropped and Busch made quick work to advance into second place within lap one. Busch immediately commented to his crew, “We are loose all the way through, there’s no rear grip.” Then within three laps the JGR veteran had taken over the race lead where he found clean air helped the car’s loose-handling. An initial pit stop at lap 27 and the team replenished tires and fuel, then made a chassis adjustment to offer better handling for the Monster Energy athlete. The ensuing restart proved difficult as two competitors, the No. 42 of Kyle Larson and the No. 09 of Chase Elliott battled hard with Busch for the lead, but over the next lap Busch prevailed and maintained the lead.
Fast pit stops through the day allowed the JGR unit to remain in front most of the race, however, restarts proved difficult all afternoon as competitors pushed the envelope knowing it was their only opportunity to try and beat the No. 54. One dicey restart at lap 98, including eventual race winner Kevin Harvick in the No. 5 car, had everyone holding their breath as competitors took aggressive maneuvers to attempt the pass on Busch who prevailed. Over the radio Busch was heard, “That was some entertainment there!” Spotter Tony Hirschman replied back, “too much for the halfway point.” To which Busch reminded him, “Hey, I’m not the bonsai guy!”
The real turning point that ultimately affected what would be a race-winning performance by Busch came at lap 153 under a yellow-flag when most teams had only one fresh set of Goodyear tires to utilize. While the No. 54 JGR team took on four tires with their fuel replenishment, other competitors took either two tires or no tires and only Sunoco fuel. This put the No. 54 back in the 16th position for restart, when his work was cut out for him to race back through the pack. “Do your deal here man, you’re the man!” crew chief Adam Stevens was heard pumping up his driver over the radio.
Within the next five laps Busch had cut his deficit by eight positions and hope came back to the Monster Energy crew members as they watched their veteran driver work hard towards the position he wanted to regain. Another five positions grabbed over the next five laps, to third place, and Busch set his sights on the leading No. 5 of Harvick and the No. 42 car in second place. Difficult to see out the front window, though, Busch lost momentum alongside the outer wall and slipped too far back to make additional progress. While the team hoped their No. 54 would land atop the scoring pylon, as it did so often earlier in the race, they settled for a third-place finish at the end.
A disappointed Busch commented post-race, “I had a really fast car and I knew we needed to come down to get tires, but obviously four (tires) was the wrong call and put us back behind. I fought my butt off there for the last run of the race and could only get to third because any time the second-place car got in front of me, all I did was knock the wall down with aero issues.”
Busch continued, “It is what it is. Sucks to not be in victory lane where we should be. You know what, this Monster Energy Camry was fast today and deserved to win – but couldn’t get through traffic.”
Harvick accomplished his 44th victory in 314 career NASCAR Nationwide Series starts. Larson, Busch, Ryan Blaney and Trevor Bayne completed the top-five finishers. There were six caution periods for 35 laps of the race along with 14 lead changes across seven drivers, including Busch who led a race-high six times for 141 of 200 laps that earned him the 3M Lap Leader Award.
The No. 54 Monster Energy team remains second in the Owner’s Championship Point standings, 15 points from the leading No. 22 Penske Ford.
The Nationwide Series continues action Sept. 20 at the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. The television broadcast will start at 7:00pm EST on a TV station to be determined and on PRN radio. Sam Hornish Jr. will make his seventh and final start of the season behind the wheel of the JGR No. 54 Monster Energy Camry.
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