Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished 20th in Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn after a frustrating day of misfortunes and battling an ill-handling car.
Photo Credit: stewarthaasracing.com
“It was a tough day, and I hate it for my Haas Automation team,” Busch said. “We were very loose on exit all day and couldn’t get any grip on restarts. Just couldn’t get on top of the handling, and after two unscheduled trips to pit road, we couldn’t recover in time. I’m proud of my guys for working so hard in the pits today. We’ll put it behind us and move on to Bristol for a fresh start.”
Busch started the race from the 16th position and determined within just a few laps that the No. 41 Chevrolet was loose when exiting the turns. Despite the issue, he was able to race his way into the top-10 by lap 15. A competition caution on lap 22 allowed the team to pit and make adjustments to the car to improve handling, as well as change right-side tires. Busch restarted 13th when green-flag racing resumed on lap 25.
The team made adjustments to the car during pit stops throughout the race, but their efforts fell short and Busch began losing position. During a restart on lap 142, he felt what he thought was a flat left-rear tire and quickly came to pit road. The team changed all four tires but discovered the issue was with handling, not a flat tire. The stop caused Busch to fall a lap down, but he soon raced back to rejoin the lead lap.
On lap 184, Busch radioed that the car was out of fuel. He rolled onto pit road just as a caution emerged when Jimmie Johnson went spinning on the backstretch. Busch was issued two infractions – pitting before pit road was open and speeding upon entering pit road – and would restart from the rear of the field, one lap down.
Busch raced hard during the remaining 12 laps to improve his position, but he couldn’t pick up any momentum as he continued to fight handling. The Las Vegas native finished 20th, completing 199 of the event’s 200 laps. He sits eighth in the 2015 driver point standings with 683 points, 183 back from leader and teammate Kevin Harvick.
There were eight caution periods for 31 laps with two drivers failing to finish the 200-lap race.
With round 23 of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR in the championship point standings. He is first with 866 points, 48 ahead of second-place Logano. With two wins apiece, Harvick and Busch are locked into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Patrick is 21st with 508 points, 85 out of 16th, the cutoff position to make the 16-driver Chase field on points. Stewart is 26th with 441 points, 152 out of 16th.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 22. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC Sports Network.
