Darlington Race Recap

Date: May 8, 2022

Event: Goodyear 400 (Round 12 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval)

Format: 293 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/95 laps/108 laps)

Start/Finish: 5th/33rd (Accident, completed 167 of 293 laps)

Point Standing: 6th (364 points, 89 behind leader)

Race Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)

Notes:

● Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S 1998 Throwback Toyota Camry, finished 33rd in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 from Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

● Busch started the race fifth, but was running seventh at the lap-30 competition caution break. He pitted for tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment to loosen the handling of the No. 18 M&M’S 1998 Throwback Toyota Camry. He restarted fourth on lap 36th and worked his way to the front taking the lead on lap 62.

● Busch led for 18 laps, but ultimately finished the first stage in the third position, earning seven bonus points.

● The two-time Cup Series champion began the second stage in second and ran in the third position until a scheduled green-flag pit stop on lap 147. Busch returned to the track in sixth and quickly made his way back into the top-five before the No. 6 car blew a right-front tire leaving the M&M’S 1998 Throwback driver with no where to go to avoid contact.

●The damage to the No. 18 Toyota Camry ended Busch’s race with only 167 laps complete.

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S 1998 Throwback Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

“The 6 (Brad Keselowski) blew a right-front tire coming off of turn two. I had nowhere to go and just got collected up in something not of our doing. It’s frustrating. We had a good M&M’s Throwback Camry and it was nice to be able to run in the top-five and lead some laps there. Just felt like we were trying to debate on the setup there between the short run versus the long run and where we wanted to be good and what all was going to pay dividends at the end of the day.”  

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Advent Health 400 on Sunday, May 15, at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.