Kyle Busch suddenly crashed under caution last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. This incident led to numerous questions about the cause, and Richard Childress Racing has provided as best an explanation as it can.
"Well, unfortunately, we really don't know," Randall Burnett, Busch's crew chief, said during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's "On Track." Burnett continued and explained why the No. 8 team could not find the exact reason for the crash.
"We had had some left side damage. We had (come) in, we were the caution right before the rain had started. Obviously, got spun there off of Turn 2, hit the inside wall, had a good bit of damage from that. So we came in and the left front toe (link) was off quite a bit. The left rear seemed to be okay, the toe link wasn't bent or anything like that. So we came up with a plan to try to get the left front toe straightened out.
"...As soon as they lifted the red flag, we came in. The guys did a really good job of working strictly on that left front and we didn't really have much right-side damage. They got everything tightened up. We went back out, was catching the field.
"Kyle was running towards Turn 3 there and the car started sliding and then hooked pretty hard right. Put him into the wall. So after that hit the entire right side of the car was destroyed at that point. So diagnosing to see if anything had happened was really hard to tell because everything was destroyed."
Oh man... @KyleBusch is done for the day after crashing under caution.
Looks like it just snapped loose on him entering Turn 3.
What an awful stretch for the 2-time Champion.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/EXFlekxBPC
— NASCAR on TSN (@NASCARonTSN) June 23, 2024
The crash under caution was the final incident in an afternoon of struggles for Busch and the No. 8 team. The two-time Cup champion started 30th after rain canceled qualifying. He then fell one lap down on Lap 40 while struggling with speed and handling.
The problems continued as Busch brought out the caution on Lap 155 after a multi-car incident also involving Noah Gragson's No. 10. Ford. He then spun out right before the rain hit New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
"Obviously, our car wasn't nowhere near where it needed to be either," Burnett said. "So, being buried deep in the field and not being where we need to be with our car and the setup stuff certainly made for a long day."
The 35th-place finish, Busch's third in the last four races, dropped him 45 points below the playoff cutline with eight races remaining in the regular season. Yet there is some hope for Richard Childress Racing and the No. 8 team.
As Burnett explained during his appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, the short tracks are behind the team for a while. These are the tracks where they have struggled. Now they can prepare for intermediate tracks and road courses.
The next race on the schedule, in particular, is an opportunity. Busch had speed during last season's race at Nashville Superspeedway, and he delivered a top-10 finish after overcoming a tire issue and a speeding penalty.