Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Core Toyota, is introduced prior to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Citizen Solider 400 at Dover International Speedway on October 2, 2016 in Dover, Delaware. Photo – Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

Runner-up Kyle Busch finished a whopping 7.527 seconds behind Martin Truex Jr., winner of Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway.

Though the Joe Gibbs Racing organization that fields Busch’s cars gets its engines from Toyota Racing Development (TRD), as does Truex’s Furniture Row Racing, and though the organizations maintain a technical partnership, Truex’s team has enjoyed an edge in speed of late, winning two of the first three races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Don’t think Busch hasn’t noticed.

“I was just waiting to make my move,” Busch quipped after the race. “I had him in my sights all day long – nah, I was just kidding. I had nobody in my sights all day long. I was in my own area code and he was off in his own zip code.

“We’ve got really fast cars, just missing the boat a little bit on something the 78 team has figured out. We finished second here just like we did here last year at this race. It was a good points day for us, we were able to move on to the next round, and we can keep being able to do that and just get ourselves to Homestead. That’s where it matters the most.”

Busch can make that assertion first-hand. Last year he won the Sprint Cup championship by winning the season final at Homestead-Miami Speedway.