Season of Discontent Continues for Kyle Busch at New Hampshire

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season has been a nightmare for Kyle Busch and didn’t get any better in Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Coming into the race with a season-long winless streak that he desperately would like to break, Busch started the day in fifth-place and was just biding his time early on when things went awry just 15 laps into the 301-lap race.

Heading into Turn 3, Busch’s No. 18 car blew a tire, sending him hard into the outside wall, causing heavy damage to his Pedigree sponsored Toyota. The damage was too severe for his team to be able to fix, with Busch retiring from the race and finishing the race in last place.

The dog days of summer continue to hound @KyleBusch.

His day is done at @NHMS. pic.twitter.com/ov3JIH1vZY

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 2, 2020

“I blew a right-front tire for some reason,” said Busch. “I have no idea why. Way too early in the going for anything to be wrong or even to build enough brake temp or brake heat. I don’t know. Just hate it for our Pedigree team and the fight that we’ve been having this year seems to be continuing.

“Last time I was here in a Pedigree car, we blew a right-front tire for no reason as well too. Just seems to be our luck with the Pedigree scheme for some reason here at New Hampshire. It’s still 2020, but sooner or later we have to turn this stuff around.”

Goodyear would later unveil that Busch’s cut tire came as a result of running over a piece of debris, which caused the tire to deflate and send him into the wall.

The 18-car of @KyleBusch ran over some debris at @NHMS and had a cut in the tread of his RF tire, causing him to hit the wall. @JoeGibbsRacing

— Goodyear Racing (@GoodyearRacing) August 2, 2020

Busch’s last place finish marks the seventh time he has finished at the tail end of the field in his career and the first time for the two-time and defending Cup Series champion to finish there since Michigan in June 2016.

Even with Sunday’s result, Busch still maintains a healthy points advantage over the cut-off line for the Playoffs, sitting 13^th in the standings, 94 points up with six races remaining in the regular season.