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Kyle Busch's crew works on his car's engine at Michigan. (Getty)
Three weeks ago, Kyle Busch was one of the hottest drivers in the
Sprint Cup Series. He was on a run of four straight top-5 finishes
including a win at Richmond, and looked poised to stay comfortably in
the top 10 in the points standings over the summer.
But that optimism has dimmed since, as engine issues have turned the
last three races from promising to disastrous, including Sunday's
Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan. As a result, he's now 12th in the points
standings, 26 points behind 10th place Brad Keselowski.
On Sunday, Busch had some early speed, but was back in the pack after
making an extra pit stop under caution to fix some right-side damage
after he scraped the wall. But then Busch was forced to take the car to
the garage because of his engine. While he was able to get back on
track, he finished 32nd, 43 laps down.
At Dover, Busch was 29th. At Pocono, he finished 30th.
Three straight engine-plagued races for any team — let alone a single
driver — is troublesome, but it may be especially so for a team like
Joe Gibbs Racing, which had engine reliability issues last year. Before
this year, the team — which had previously run its own in-house engine
shop — merged engine operations with Toyota Racing Development in an
effort to increase performance and reliability.
Thanks to that Richmond win, Busch is in line for the first wild
card. And while Kasey Kahne's misfortune at Michigan helps, Busch's
margin for error has all but disappeared. Kahne, Ryan Newman and Joey
Logano each have a win while winless (so far) Carl Edwards is ahead of
Busch in the standings.
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