Kyle Busch, winless in 82 consecutive races, needs to win tonight's regular season finale at Daytona to make the playoffs.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch has joked that he won the Daytona 500 only for the race to be extended by overtime. HIs race then ended in a crash.
For all that Busch has done — his 63 victories rank ninth on the all-time Cup list — the two-time series champion has won only one Cup race at Daytona. That took place in July 2008, a couple of weeks before Connor Zilisch, now 19, turned 2 years old.
“It’s frustrating, for sure, having so many times that we’ve been close and not being able to get the job done,” said Busch, who finished second in this race a year ago and has nine top-five results in 40 Daytona Cup starts.
“That makes it frustrating but it gives you a sense of optimism as well, too, knowing that you’ve been so close and you can probably be close again. You just need to put yourself in the circumstance that gets you to victory lane first.”
A victory in tonight’s race at Daytona International Speedway is the only way for Busch to make the playoffs. A victory also would snap a career-long 82-race winless streak. Coverage on NBC and Peacock begins at 7 p.m. ET.
He’ll have teammate Austin Dillon helping him to end that streak. Dillon, who won last weekend at Richmond to clinch a playoff spot, is clear on what his agenda is tonight.
“I’m probably going to play wingman as much as I can and help in that,” Dillon said. “It’s a game-changer for RCR if we get two cars in the playoffs and just flips the whole momentum of where we’re at as a company. I’ll be helping all I can.”
As Dillon talked to the media Friday, Busch came up from behind, put his hands on Dillon’s shoulders, shook his teammate and said: “What’s up pusher?” It was a reference to how he hopes Dillon will be able to push him to the win.
Dillon’s victory last weekend has re-energized Richard Childress Racing heading into tonight's race.
“It goes to show you that RCR, the guys and girls there can certainly build equipment that’s capable of winning races,” Busch said.
Should Busch win tonight? He thinks back to Brad Keselowski’s alcohol-fueled ESPN interview after winning the 2012 Cup title.
“I might be worse than Brad Keselowski after a championship,” Busch said.
Category: General Sports
