Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished seventh in the AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
Photo Credit: stewarthaasracing.com
Busch started seventh in the 43-car field and ran inside the top-10 for much of the 334-lap race en route to recording his 19th top-10 finish of the 2015 season. It was also his 14th top-10 in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas.
“It was good, hard fought battle with limited practice; we had to go with our best effort to get the setup,” Busch said. “We battled through it. It just wasn’t the winning car we needed to try to advance (to the Championship Round of the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup). The way that we had been running we knew we could get close to fifth. We got seventh today, so we will take it.”
Busch entered the weekend ranked seventh of the eight drivers still in contention for the championship after being involved in an accident not of his own making in the first race of the Eliminator Round last weekend at Martinsville. The accident relegated him and his SHR team to a disappointing 34th-place finish and left them essentially in a must-win scenario in Sunday’s race at Texas or in next week’s race at Phoenix International Raceway.
“I think it’s just the strength of this team,” Busch said. “We needed to win today, but to finish seventh after all those hurdles we had to jump over it feels good with the Haas Automation Chevy. Everybody worked together to find the right setup. We pulled packer, added packer, changed every jackbolt, every air pressure, and we gave it a good, hard-fought battle to finish seventh.”
By virtue of his win at Martinsville last week, points leader Jeff Gordon remains the only driver who has clinched a spot in the playoffs’ championship round Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Busch now essentially needs a victory at Phoenix to clinch a spot in the four-driver final round.
“We’ve got to go there to win,” Busch said of next week’s race at Phoenix. “If we would have gotten a good, consistent finish last week, we would be right in the mix.”
There were nine caution periods for 47 laps, with four drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race around the 1.5-mile oval.
As the eighth race in the 10-race Chase, Texas served as the second race in the Eliminator Round. The original, 16-driver Chase field was whittled down to 12 following the Oct. 4 race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway for the Contender Round. The next cutoff race came Oct. 25 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, whereupon the Chase field shrank to eight for the Eliminator Round. The next cutoff race comes Nov. 15 at Phoenix International Raceway, where only four drivers will advance to the final, winner-take-all Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Busch and Harvick continue to represent SHR in the Chase. Harvick leaves Texas third in points with a 10-point cushion over the cutoff spot. Busch leaves Texas in seventh, 28 points outside of the top-four.
With only one race remaining before the Chase field is whittled down to four drivers for the final, winner-take-all Championship Round Nov. 22 in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the top-eight drivers still competing for the title rank as follows:
- Jeff Gordon (4,082 points … will advance to the Championship Round via his win in Eliminator Round at Martinsville)
- Kyle Busch (4,080 points … has an 11-point cushion over the cutoff position for the Championship Round)
- Kevin Harvick (4,079 points … has a 10-point cushion over the cutoff position for the Championship Round)
- Martin Truex Jr. (4,076 points … has a 7-point cushion over the cutoff position for the Championship Round)
- Carl Edwards (4,069 points … is 7 points outside the cutoff position for the Championship Round)
- Brad Keselowski (4,057 points … is 19 points outside the cutoff position for the Championship Round)
- Kurt Busch (4,048 points … is 28 points outside the cutoff position for the Championship Round)
- Joey Logano (4,013 points … is 63 points outside the cutoff position for the Championship Round)
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Nov. 15 Phoenix 500k at Phoenix. The penultimate race of the 2015 Sprint Cup season starts at 2:30 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by NBC.
