The NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) wrapped up the 2014 season Saturday at Homestead-Miami (Fl.) Speedway and the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No 54 Monster Energy team finished strong with a sixth-place qualifying position, race laps led and a second-place finish. While JGR and Busch executed a dominant season with eight wins, nine poles, 28 top-five and 28 top-10 finishes overall, the Homestead finish left them just short of a season Owner’s Championship, awarded to the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford, a close competitor of the No. 54 team for two seasons.
Busch secured a sixth-place qualifying start with a 32.592-second lap at 165.685 mph. Upon taking the green flag Saturday night, in row three, the 29-year old NASCAR veteran quickly advanced to third place by lap 18 of the scheduled 200-lap race. Busch immediately reported a “free-handling car” and asked his crew for help so the Toyota Camry could turn better. Crew chief Adam Stevens reported, “You’re the fastest thing out there, but we’ll get you fixed up.” Busch battled up front with other strong teams including the No. 42 of Kyle Larson and the No. 20 of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and eventual race winner Matt Kenseth, while they kept an eye on the Penske Racing No. 22 Ford as the NASCAR Owner’s Championship was on the line.
The first caution waved at lap 33 and Busch relayed again, “I’m a ‘6’ free and need more downforce – something to lean on – more front bite.” Stevens called Busch down pit road from second place and the team replenished Goodyear tires and Sunoco fuel with a fast pit stop that put Busch in the top spot to restart the race at lap 39.
Through two more yellow-flag caution periods and subsequent restarts, JGR teammates Busch and Kenseth battled strong at the head of the field along with lap leader Larson, then found themselves surrounded by Penske competitors, all within the top-five. Another event caution at lap 89 gave the Monster Energy team a chance to visit pit road and make adjustments to Busch’s Camry, now fourth. Still too tight to turn the car in the front though, Busch slipped to fifth place and reported to the team, “I’m too tight right now, it won’t turn at the wall, but the rest of the turn is great, if you can fix that separation…I’ll have something.”
Past halfway and back to green the No. 54 dropped to sixth place. While the previous pit stop adjustments helped, Busch battled hard for position within the top five spots in the second-half of the race.
The JGR team called the No. 54 race leader down pit road for further adjustments that would now address a free-handling condition reported by Busch. Several more pit road visits during subsequent caution periods and the crew would continue to adjust on their Camry. Restarts at the end of the race were exciting, sometimes going three and four-wide with Busch among those aggressors trying to advance positions in the waning laps of the event. What was going to be a regularly scheduled 200-lap race was thwarted when a final caution appeared before the white flag was exhibited. One attempt at a green-white-checkered finish was successful and it also gave Busch the time he needed to jump from fourth to second place for the finish, one spot short of the lead and behind his teammate race winner Kenseth.
Busch commented afterwards, “It was a good night for our Monster Energy Camry. We come to these things to try and win. We didn’t have a winning car tonight, but second is pretty good. All things considered it was a great year. I can’t say enough about my team – Adam Stevens and all my guys. They do a great job and they fight hard. They deserve to win a championship this year. I hate it we came up short again this year – two years in a row. I can’t thank Monster Energy enough, JGR and JGR Engines and all the guys back at the shop. Everyone does a great job. It was a hard fought effort and I’m glad to see Matt (Kenseth) win and bring JGR a final win this year.”
The Monster Energy athlete continued, “Those last few starts definitely got exciting. I can’t thank my team enough. We came up short on the owner’s championship and it’s just a hard fought year. We had too many bad runs that knocked us out. All in all, we gave it everything we had tonight and just wish we had more.”
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