Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), expected to be a contender to win the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup opener at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, just as he had been one year ago, but he did not have the race he hoped for Sunday afternoon.
Photo: Stewarthaasracing.com
Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, struggled with an ill-handling racecar throughout the running of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 and finished 13th.
Despite not getting the finish he and his SHR team wanted, there was a bright side for Busch: His team was not the only that struggled with handling woes and tire issues. He finished higher than five of the other drivers eligible for the 2016 championship and gained two spots in the point standings.
Busch, who started 12th Sunday, struggled with a tight-handling racecar that hampered his progress throughout the course of the event. Despite a series of adjustments on various pit stops, the Haas Automation team could never get the handling quite right, which limited Busch’s ability to make passes for position.
As the laps clicked off, the handling of Busch’s Haas Automation Chevrolet went from extremely tight to extremely loose. Busch and his Tony Gibson-led crew took advantage of a late-race caution period to come to pit road for adjustments, taking one more swing at improving his handling woes.
Busch restarted 14th on lap 268 and tried to make the most of the final two overtime laps, but he lacked the time needed to battle for a top-10 finish and instead took the checkered flag in 13th.
There were four caution periods for 22 laps with all 40 drivers finishing the 270-lap race around the 1.5-mile oval, which went into overtime and finished three laps beyond its scheduled distance.
Busch, Stewart and Harvick are representing SHR in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and they entered the first race of the 10-race, 16-driver Chase seeded 12th, 11th and fourth, respectively, in the Round of 16. Busch leaves Chicagoland in 10th with a four-point margin over 13th place. Following the third race of the Chase at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, only those Chase drivers who have won a race or are among the top-12 in points will advance to the Round of 12.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the second race of the Chase – is the Sept. 25 New England 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The race starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN.
