Photo – Josh Hedges/Getty Images
To say 2016 has been a feast-or-famine year for Kyle Busch would be a colossal understatement.
And lately it’s been all famine.
Just past the 50 lap mark of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway, the engine in Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota gave up the ghost, spewing fire from underneath the chassis and filling the driver’s compartment with smoke.
Busch unpinned his window net, drove his car to the garage and exited the race in 40th place, the first driver out.
That marked the fourth straight event in which Busch has finished 30th or worse and the sixth time in 15 races he has run 25th or worse.
On the other hand, Busch has finished in the top four on nine occasions and has three victories to his credit, most in the series so far this year.
“Just been feeling the motor kind of going south for about 30 laps or so and it finally let go,” Busch said of Sunday’s failure. “At least there was plenty of warning, and I knew it was going to get hot in there, and it certainly did once it let go and it was on fire. It’s just been a dismal month, just haven’t been able to hit anything and get good finishes going.
“Our car has been really fast and (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) and the guys have been doing a great job getting us good stuff to the race track, but it just wasn’t our day today… We started out the season good and strong and had some top fives and such, so it was a good foundation for us to build off of. We’d like to be able to get our luck turned around and get back to finishing races where we know we can.”