TALLADEGA, Ala. - Kyle Busch suffered a disappointing result last week in the opening race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ second round at Texas Motor Speedway.
As a result of failing to finish the race, the two-time series champion finds himself in last place among the 12 Playoff drivers vying to advance to the Round of 8 following Sunday’s Talladega race and next week’s event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield road course.
And beyond his time behind the wheel, Busch announced major news this week in his job as a longtime NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team owner. He has sold his two-time championship winning Kyle Busch Motorsports team to Spire Motorsports. And although he will still compete in five races for the organization in 2024, Busch conceded Saturday at Talladega that the move was “obviously a super bittersweet moment’’ thanking all the people who contributed to the company’s success story.
As for Talladega, Busch acknowledged he’s got some work to do to regain the momentum he had earlier this season earning three victories in his first year driving the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet – the most wins he’s had since 2019. He’s a two-time Talladega winner, including this past spring.
“I think you come in here stress-meter pegged, regardless if whether you’re 30 (points) to the good or 30 behind,” Busch said. “We obviously know in our situation we’re further behind. So you have to race. I think it’s been more sought out to just race these races and run normal and not to hang out in the back and try to wait for something to happen. Because with these cars and the way the race play out it’s so hard to make moves and make passes and get track position whenever you want it. You can’t.
“So you have to hold it when you got it and if you don’t have it, then you have to figure out how to fuel save so that you can short-pit guys and jump ‘em on pit road. There’s so many variables you have to just race it out and don’t worry about it. Whatever happens, happens.”
Wallace Making The Most Of His Playoff Debut
Bubba Wallace has certainly been making the most of his NASCAR Cup Series Playoff debut, advancing to the second round – leading the most laps and finishing third in the opening race of this round last week at Texas.
He enters Sunday’s race ranked ninth in the standings, only a slight 2-points below the transfer line for the Round of 8. And Talladega is the site of his first ever series victory in 2021.
Interestingly, Wallace said that although he’s grateful and motivated to be in the 2023 Playoffs, truth be told, he feels like his No. 23 23XI Racing team should have been there last year too.
“We were capable of doing this last year,” Wallace said. “We have the right people, just going to have to put it all together. It has been a lot of work to get to this point, for sure. It’s super cool to see the results pay off for everybody on this team. I could see my guys fired up about showing up for this race and we still have our name in the hat, we are progressing forward.
“We were the last seed to start the Playoffs and the last seed coming into this round and we advanced. And we are now two points out of advancing again. It’s cool for them. I’m pumped for them and I’m seeing them work extra hard to make sure we are doing everything right – that’s what motivates me.”
Chastain’s Championship Road
Ross Chastain smiled and conceded his 2023 season has been, “up, down, left and right” following a breakout year in 2022 when he advanced to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Finale for the first time in his career, ultimately finishing runner-up to Joey Logano for the big trophy.
Last season, Chastain earned his first two wins in the series – at the Circuit of the Americas road course and then on the Talladega Superspeedway big track – and a career best 15 top five finishes and 21 top 10 showings leading a career best 692 laps.
This season, he earned his first career pole position – at Nashville – and turned it into his only victory so far. He’s ranked sixth in the Playoff standings with a 12-point cushion above the eighth place cutoff position. Eight drivers advance to the penultimate stage of the Playoffs following next week’s race at the Charlotte infield road course.
Chastain has a pair of top 10 finishes in the opening four Playoff races with a best showing of runner-up just last week at Texas insisting he had “no pre-conceived expectations.” Asked this week if he was concerned about his Playoff hopes this season, Chastain looked calm.
“Not really, we just go race, that’s what we do,” Chastain said. “They give out the same amount of points in every stage and every race in every one of these rounds. If we finish the race and run up front we get more points, if not, we know we get less.
“We just go race and that’s what’s so great about what our sport offers right now and what these playoffs offer. They give us a chance after three races they give you a chance and then after three races if you make it, they give you another chance and no matter how it went, as long as you beat four guys. We’ll go see how many points we can scrap up.”
NASCAR Cup Series
Talladega Superspeedway – Talladega, AL
YellaWood 500 – October 1, 2023
Sunday’s Starting Line Up
1. Aric Almirola
2. Joey Logano
3. Chase Briscoe
4. Kyle Larson (P)
5. Brad Keselowski (P)
6. Riley Herbst (i)
7. Austin Cindric
8. William Byron (P)
9. Bubba Wallace (P)
10. Ryan Blaney (P)
11. Kevin Harvick
12. Denny Hamlin (P)
13. Tyler Reddick (P)
14. Austin Dillon
15. Christopher Bell (P)
16. Martin Truex, Jr. (P)
17. Todd Gilliland
18. Michael McDowell
19. Ryan Preece
20. Alex Bowman
21. Harrison Burton
22. Ty Gibbs
23. Chase Elliott
24. Chris Buescher (P)
25. Kyle Busch (P)
26. Erik Jones
27. J.J. Yeley (i)
28. Daniel Suarez
29. Brennan Poole (i)
30. Justin Haley
31. A.J. Allmendinger
32. Ross Chastain (P)
33. Ty Dillon
34. Chandler Smith (i)
35. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
36. Corey LaJoie
37. B.J. McLeod (i)
38. Carson Hocevar (P)
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
WDUN will carry live MRN Radio coverage of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 from Talladega Superspeedway beginning at 1 pm on 102.9 FM, AM 550 and streaming live on AccessWDUN.
