NASCAR: Kyle Busch complains about late caution at Homestead-Miami
By Asher Fair
Kyle Busch did not find himself as the 2017 NASCAR Cup champion in Victory Lane in the final race of the season. Instead, he found himself complaining.
Kyle Busch, the 2015 NASCAR Cup Series champion, finished about a half-second behind Ford EcoBoost 400 winner Martin Truex Jr., who won the 2017 Cup Series championship as a result of his win in the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida.
Because of his runner-up finish in the race, Busch finished runner-up in the 2017 championship battle behind only Truex Jr., thus failing to secure his second career Cup Series championship and his second in the last three years.
It’s nothing new to hear Busch upset and complaining following defeat, and that’s exactly what he did following his 2nd place finish at Homestead-Miami. He took a shot at NASCAR in his post-race interview for throwing a late caution flag that messed up his strategy.
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"“Yea, it did cost us track position, but I was all for it. The last couple nights, we’ve seen NASCAR leave it green, and they let them race it out. So I thought that that was going to be the strategy, but I guess when you’re going to win by 12 seconds or something then you better get a caution when you can get one.”“I don’t know. I don’t know if there was really stuff out there. I didn’t see anything out there. I don’t know what was the leading cause to throwing the caution, but it’s always inevitable. It’s always going to happen. I guess we just didn’t think of it, and it bit us.”"
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The caution to which Busch is referring is the one that came out on lap 229 of the 267-lap race when his brother Kurt spun. NASCAR threw a caution flag like they do any other time a car spins on the track, so he really has nothing to be complaining about.
Leading up to Kurt Busch’s spin, Martin Truex Jr. had come in to pit for new tires and was gaining ground on Kyle Busch, who stayed out to lead the race. Kyle Busch then came in for new tires and was rapidly gaining ground on Truex Jr., who led the race as a result of the ground that he had previously made up, before Kurt Busch spun, bringing out the race’s and the season’s final caution flag and sending everyone to the pits to get new tires for the end of the race, allowing Truex Jr. to maintain the lead, which he ultimately held on to to win the race and the 2017 Cup Series championship.
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Does Kyle Busch have a point, or is he just complaining since he didn’t win the Ford EcoBoost 400 and was unable to secure his second career NASCAR Cup Series championship?