Busch finishes P9 at Richmond

Date: Aug. 14, 2022

Event: Federated Auto Parts 400 (Round 24 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway (0.75-mile oval)

Format: 400 laps, broken into three stages (70 laps/160 laps/240 laps)

Start/Finish: 29th/9th (Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)

Point Standing: 9th with 663 points, 219 behind leader

Race Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

Stage 1 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)

Stage 2 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)

Notes:

● Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota Camry, finished ninth in Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 from Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

● Busch brushed the wall on lap 54 while running 17th and reported he needed more grip for the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota Camry. He completed the first stage in 19th and pitted for tires, fuel and adjustments before starting the second stage in 15th.

● The Las Vegas native battled a tight-handling M&M’s Toyota Camry in the center of the turns throughout the second stage. He finished the stage in 10th to earn one bonus point and began the final stage in 10th.

● The Two-Time Cup Series champion was battling the No. 1 of Ross Chastain for the 10th position on lap 240 when his M&M’s Toyota Camry spun coming out of turn four. Busch pitted for scuffed tires and returned to the track in 17th. He worked his way back into the top-15 before another caution occurred on lap 250.

● On the lap-257 restart, Busch moved up to the third and drove to the seventh position, but cars on newer tires made it past him over the following five laps and he settled into 11th.

● The M&M’S driver made two more pit stops for the duration of the race, but just couldn’t find the handle on the car he needed with his car continuing to be too tight in the center of the corner, as he brought home his 12th top-10 finish of the season.

● With the top-10 finish at Richmond and now sitting 10th on the playoff grid, Busch locked in his playoff spot, provided he makes a qualifying effort during the last two races of the regular season next week at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and the following week at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

“We were looking okay, and in a good spot just coming up through there working our way methodically through the field with our M&M’s Toyota Camry, and we got ‘Chastained’ this week. We were his victim this week. And then that didn't hurt us too bad. We restarted back in a decent spot. But then the next spin I think, was Christopher (Bell). That allowed the guys that were around us that we were kind of racing some of our team guys to come get tires and then they had 10 fresher laps on tires the whole rest of the day. So that kind of hurt us if we would have been on that strategy we would have run out of tires, but we also probably would have been in the top five. So just wrong side of the strategy there. At the end, nothing, nothing to do really to flip that but good fight all day long. You know, the top 10 is about what we had anyway, I figured the best we were it was about a seventh, but barring a strategy call, we could have probably been top-five. So that's all we had anyway.”

Next Up: The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Go Bowling! at The Glen on Sunday, Aug. 21 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. The 90-lap race around the seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.