NASCAR: Gray Gaulding understands Kyle Busch’s lap traffic frustration

Gray Gaulding, who runs part-time for some of NASCAR’s lesser funded teams, understands the frustration of Kyle Busch toward lap traffic.

Last Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, reigning and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch came up shy yet again of securing his first win of the 2020 season. Now 29 races into the year, he still has not found victory lane.

Saturday night’s race came down to a battle between Busch and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, two perennial championship contenders and former champions who regularly battle it out in the Championship 4.

But it was Harvick who prevailed to add to his series-high win total. He has now won a career-high nine races this year with seven races still remaining on the schedule, while Busch was left frustrated with lap traffic after losing the lead late and being unable to pass Harvick back again for the win.

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“If that lap car wasn’t there, I would have blown it in on the outside or the inside and maybe we would have banged each other’s doors or whatever and had a greater finish to the checkered,” he said after the race. “But some of them dipshit kids don’t know what the hell they’re doing or where they’re at and can’t stay out of the way. Nothing like a [Joey] Gase and a [Garrett] Smithley.”

Busch has expressed frustration with lap traffic before, including Gase and Smithley, so it did not come as much of a surprise to hear his comments after his fourth runner-up finish of 2020.

We asked Gray Gaulding, the 22-year-old who has only ever competed for some of the sport’s smaller teams since making his Cup Series debut in 2016, about his thoughts on the whole lap traffic ordeal.

“When you’re racing against the guys in the playoffs, we all know, especially the part-time guys, it’s hard not to pay attention to that because I put myself in their shoes,” he said to Beyond the Flag. “If I’m running my own race and I happen to get in front of them, not on purpose, but you do need to know your surroundings, and I’ve got that in my head. I know what they’re racing for because, once again, I put myself in their shoes.”

Gaulding has competed in seven races this season for Rick Ware Racing behind the wheel of the #27 Ford. His top finish is 25th place at Texas Motor Speedway back in July.

“I would not want a guy getting in my way or making a move that could possibly hurt my championship odds or chances,” he continued. “In my head, definitely I’ll be thinking about that, but realistically, at the end of the day, we’re all out there racing to win and compete though. So you have to play both sides. You just gotta be smart about it.”

In all seven of his starts this season, Gaulding has finished multiple laps off the lead lap. At Bristol Motor Speedway, he finished in 27th place, 12 laps down. He finished in a career-high ninth at Talladega Superspeedway in October of 2017 diving for BK Racing.

“Like last week at Bristol, I saw Kyle and Kevin battling for the win, and I pulled over on the back straightaway to just let those guys go,” he said. “There’s no point in ruining their race and causing a headline that could be detrimental to me and a lot of other people because yeah I do run for a small team and I understand that, but also I have to know my surroundings, and that’s why — we’re professionals — we should know these things.”

As for Busch’s comments, he didn’t want to comment too much on the subject, but he admitted that he can understand his frustration.

“And obviously I read and heard some of the comments,” he stated. “I won’t comment too much about it, but it was a little bit of a — kind of a bonehead move if you ask me. But it is what it is. Luckily it wasn’t me, and like I said, I hope it won’t be me ever, but once again, you have to know that those guys are going to be running for the playoffs and they’re trying to run for a championship and they’re going to do different moves. I think for me it’s just be smart and run my own race.”

After competing in the Xfinity Series race, the Alsco 300, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway yesterday evening and finishing in 24th place, Gaulding is set to compete in the Cup Series race, the South Point 400, at the track this evening. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET.