After looking at the tape, Kyle Busch isn’t sure what amount of blame everyone should receive for the overtime restart contact at Phoenix International Raceway that ended with a Matt Kenseth crash.
But the 2015 Sprint Cup champion knows the blame isn’t completely on him.
On the first overtime attempt in the Can-Am 500, Alex Bowman dove his No. 88 Chevrolet deep into Turn 1. But he made the move in front of Busch. The two made contact and the momentum from it sent Bowman up into Kenseth, the race leader.
The incident ended with Kenseth in the wall and his Chase for the Sprint Cup hopes dashed.
Later on pit road, Busch took most of the blame for the accident.
“I feel like I had way less to do with it,” Busch said Thursday at Championship 4 Media Day. “I thought that when I got into Bowman, that shot him off into the corner and he cleaned Matt out like two lanes up the track, which wasn’t the case. Yeah, I was definitely hard on myself. I probably took way too much blame, but I think there’s still some blame for all of us to take .... What percentage of blame should be given to everybody, I think we all have a piece, but what exact percentage that is, I’m not sure.”
Busch said he and Kenseth have exchanged text this week discussing the incident. The restart in question was the result of a caution that came out while Kenseth was in Turn 3, about to receive the white flag.
“It’s as good as it’s going to be good right now with him still probably being rightfully upset with how it all went down last week,” Busch said. “He was, what, 30, 35 seconds away from taking the white? That’s a pretty bummer situation.”