Chasers Kyle Busch, Joey Logano dealt early setbacks at Charlotte, but Busch rallied back

Rea White

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Chasers Kyle Busch, Joey Logano dealt early setbacks at Charlotte, but Busch rallied back image

Kyle Busch looked like he would certainly be in the mix for the win in the opening race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup’s second round.

Then he had a tire issue and had to pit earlier than the rest of the field, on Lap 90. 

MORE: Ranking the remaining 12 Chase drivers

It looked like the stop might be a serious blow to his Chase for the Sprint Cup chances, but the driver rallied throughout the day at Charlotte Motor Speedway to net a solid top-10 finish. 

Busch returned to the track in 31st after the right-front tire issue. Suddenly, instead of fighting for the lead, Busch was battling to stay in position to get the free pass should a caution come out.

Busch, the defending series champion, has never won a Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 

A short time later, teammate Carl Edwards, also in the Chase, reported that he felt a tire vibration as well, though he wasn't hampered by that issue. 

The Charlotte race as being run on Sunday after being postponed from Saturday night. The teams were on the track for qualifying on Thursday night, but rain canceled all on-track activities in the time since. 

Regular pit stops started about 20 laps later, including leader Chase Elliott pitting on Lap 114. Joey Logano crashed into the wall on Lap 115, causing a caution in the middle of the green-flag pit sequence and putting Busch back on the lead lap. 

Logano was on pit road repeatedly for repairs during the ensuing caution as his team worked frantically to repair his car. 

Several took the wavearound during the caution period. On the restart, Logano was 20th while Busch was still a lap down in 21st. 

Logano's problems escalated on Lap 157 when he had another tire problem and hit the wall. Logano went to the garage for repairs after the latest setback. 

"Tires are popping," Logano said. "We’re not the only car that had the issue, but we’re the ones that hit the wall when it happen, so that’s not the best place to have them go down. We had a fast car. Our car was capable of winning the race. We drove up from 10th and were up to third and running down the leaders, so I felt really good about what we had. I don’t know. Things happen. It’s part of racing, I guess.” 

Busch, though, fought back - from both that stop and being involved in a Lap 260 multicar crash that left him with some damage on his car. The finish came in a race where several Chase contenders struggled mightily, though with two races remaining in this segment of the Chase, anything is possible. 

He said that he was glad that the team caught the tire problem early, keeping him from having a larger issue with which to deal. It did, however, force him to fight back throughout the race. 

“There early on we had a tire come apart and that just kind of ruined our day," he said. "Right from there, it just seemed like we were playing catch up and thought we were going to have a good opportunity to have a good finish and then we had the 3 (of Austin Dillon) spin his tires and clog up the inside lane and just chaos started and I did the best I could to try to avoid it and I didn’t want to check up too bad and slow down too much and get run over, but I ran over the guy in front of me, so I hate it that we ruined Chase’s day like that, but, man, things happen quick like that on restarts too, so I wish it – we had a little bit better breaks, but we certainly didn’t have a whole lot go wrong like some of them other guys.”

As to his tire issue, Busch said that he first heard the problem, so he knew he needed to check into it. 

"As I was going down the front straightaway, I just heard tire chunks being thrown off the tire, and it was hitting the inner fender wall, so instantly I just checked up because you don't normally ever hear those sorts of things," he said. "I just checked up and tried to ease it back and get to pit road as best I could and just take the chance in that it was something wrong with the tire and not that I ran over something and just be on the safe side of it instead of continuing on and blowing a tire or something.

"That all worked out for us. All I heard over the radio was it was a delamination problem. I don't know what the heck that means."

But he took the chance to weigh in on what he thought it did. 

"Sounds like the normal problems I always have with Goodyear when it comes to Chase time and not having the confidence in the tire," he said. 
 

Rea White