Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Kurt Busch
Busch got off to a slow start in 2014 when his best finish in his first four races was 21st. Busch then ran third in the Auto Club 400 before winning the STP 500 and punching his ticket to the 2014 chase. Following his win Busch would finish the next six races 23rd or worse. His performance picked up slightly in the second half of the season but was still more inconsistent than anything else.
Late in the season Stewart-Haas Racing switched out the No. 41 crew for the No. 10 crew and the results over the final three races were impressive. In the final three races of 2014 Busch finished 11th or better in each contest. While the short term results are promising it’s hard to imagine the long term results being the same. Busch was given quality equipment for all of 2014 and was not able to perform consistently with it and a lot of that was not the fault of his crew. Busch will most likely have the same inconsistencies plague him in 2015 as well as the added distraction of his domestic violence case.
Busch will not be the worst driver at SHR in 2015 but he will also not make the chase.