DARLINGTON, S.C. — Kyle Busch left little to the imagination after he was eliminated early in Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The result left Busch outside the cutline with two races left in the opening round. Busch is two points behind Tyler Reddick for the final transfer spot.
“We were running like (expletive),” he said after his 35th-place finish. “We got wrecked. It’s what you get when you run like (expletive.)”
Busch’s race ended after 125 of 367 laps when he crashed after contact with Austin Dillon. Busch, though was more frustrated with where he was running (12th at the time).
“We ran better than this when we were first here in the spring,” Busch said, alluding to his third-place finish at Darlington in May. “… Today, we were driving nowhere. We were staying put. Just trying to fend off everybody behind us. We were bad. Weren’t going forward.
“The car was dead-dog tight. Couldn’t do anything with it. You don’t deserve to be wrecked. When you’re running with the (expletive), you get (expletive) on.”
Busch was frustrated with the information he and his team gained in the simulator for this race and how it didn’t translate to the car. It’s an issue he had throughout last season, when he was eliminated after the second round of the playoffs.
“I don’t know what our problem is, but every time I go to the sim and use the sim and think we had a good sim session, we go to the race track and we suck,” he said. “So, I’m done with that. We’ll have to use some other tools on figuring out how to be good.”
Sunday’s race was the playoff opener, giving Busch two more chances to gain enough points to advance or win to move on to the next round. Busch field to score points in the first stage and failed to finish the second stage.
The series races at Richmond and Bristol in this round. Both are good tracks for him.
Busch was the second playoff driver to see his race end after a crash. Michael McDowell finished last in the 37-car field after he wrecked on Lap 31.
Kyle Busch is OUT!
Austin Dillon gets into the No. 18 car, and "Rowdy" goes to the garage for an early exit at @TooToughToTame. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/j3hvPmPpfn
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 5, 2021
