Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), turned in another solid effort by finishing eighth in the rain-delayed SpongeBob SquarePants 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Saturday night at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. It was Busch’s fifth top-10 in 19 career Sprint Cup starts at Kansas and the eighth-straight race this season where Busch has finished among the top-15.
Busch started eighth in the 43-car field and fought handling woes that saw his red-and-black racecar tight entering the corners and loose on exit throughout much of the race, which was delayed by rain for a two-hour, 16-minute stretch after 98 laps of the 267-lap race.
“The Haas Automation Chevy had its fast moments and then it had its loose moments,” Busch said. “We hung onto it most of the night with making her pretty wide on the front straightaway and in the corners. Eighth place is good. It’s something to build on. When we come back here in the Chase, it’s great to have these notes and to go from this point forward. We could contend early, and then when the pace picked up, we got too loose. So we’ve got to work on that.”
With just 11 laps remaining, a single-car incident forced NASCAR to display the yellow flag. Busch and three other drivers elected not to pit, lining Busch up for the final restart in the third position. He was able to hold off many of those that had come to pit road for right-side tires during the caution period over the closing laps to take the checkered flag eighth.
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