NASCAR Cup Series: Kurt Busch takes a shot at officials

Kurt Busch took a shot at the NASCAR officials following Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, the 1000Bulbs.com 500.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch came to the white flag ahead of the rest of the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series round of 12 playoff race, the 1000Bulbs.com 500, at Talladega Superspeedway.

Busch had led 108 of the first 192 laps of the race, which was only scheduled to be a 188-lap race but was extended by five laps as a result of a late caution flag period. However, he was unable to hold on for the win.

The driver of the #41 Ford ran out of fuel coming out of turn four of the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) Talladega Superspeedway oval in Lincoln, Alabama, and he was subsequently passed by teammate Aric Almirola, who went on to win the race after leading only its 193rd and final lap, along with 12 other drivers.

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Busch ended up settling for 14th place in a race that he dominated after starting from the pole position.

Busch, like anyone would have been, was clearly frustrated with how the end of the race played out for him. However, much of his frustration was rooted in why it played out the way it did as opposed to the fact that it played out the way it did.

After Busch took the white flag, a wreck involving multiple drivers, including Matt DiBenedetto, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch, ensued. Had the caution flag come out at this time, the race would have been over and Kurt Busch would have been declared the winner, as another overtime period would not have taken place since he had already taken the white flag.

However, this caution flag did not come out, which Busch was not happy about after the race concluded.

Here is a video of the end of the race.

Everyone knew that there was a chance that Busch would not be able to make it to the end of the race on his fuel load, and he ended up not being able to do so. But had a caution flag been thrown as a result of this wreck, he would have won the race and locked himself into the third of four rounds in the 10-race playoffs, the round of 8.

Instead, the 40-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native is set to attempt to race his way into the round of 8 in this Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, the Hollywood Casino 400, which is the third and final race of the round of 12.

Because of how the end of the race played out, Busch took a shot at the NASCAR officials. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to Autosport.

"“Yeah I was trying to use all the information I could with my guys telling me about how the other team-mates were lifting, what their fuel mileage looked like. You don’t want to conserve too much and draw the gap of our cars back to the other guys.“I was trying to do what I could to manage the fuel and there was two missed calls by NASCAR there at the end. Why [we had] an extra yellow flag [is] beyond me. The track was ready to go. And at the end you know, once we crossed the white flag, if there’s a wreck, an ambulance needs to be dispatched.“I’ve been on the other side of that where I was racing coming back to win the race and they said, ‘well we had to dispatch an ambulance’. There was two cars dead in the water down there, Chase Elliott’s safety is of my concern, so is the #32 car [of Matt DiBenedetto]. And so, it’s a human call. There’s rules that need to be stricter at the end of these races.”"

Do you believe that Kurt Busch has a right to be upset with the NASCAR officials for not throwing the caution flag as a result of the last-lap wreck in Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, or do you believe that he is simply upset because he did not win the race?