Kyle Busch slams NASCAR after third place finish

Kyle Busch wasn’t happy with how NASCAR responded to his third place finish in Sunday afternoon’s Goodyear 400 Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch entered Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway, the Goodyear 400, coming off a victory at Kansas Speedway, his first of the 2021 season.

He started the Goodyear 400 in third place, and he quickly worked his way up to the lead. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick took the lead from Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski on lap five of this 293-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped oval in Darlington, South Carolina, and Busch took the lead from Harvick on lap 14.

But after leading eight laps, Busch had a flat tire and spun out in turn four, bringing out the race’s first caution flag period and handing the lead to teammate and eventual race winner Martin Truex Jr.

Busch did manage to recover quite nicely, however.

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The 36-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native didn’t score stage points in the first stage, but he finished the second stage in second place behind Truex.

Busch did manage to lead another lap, although it came during a pit sequence during the stage break between stages two and three. The driver of the #18 Toyota led lap 188, the only one of the race’s last 144 laps that wasn’t led by Truex. He finished the race in a solid third place behind Truex and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson.

Given the circumstances, Busch wasn’t too upset with the fact that he was able to come away with a third place finish at the track where he hasn’t won since May 2008. It was his fourth top three finish in the last seven races at the track “Too Tough To Tame”.

He did, however, take exception to NASCAR’s post about his “beginning” being better than his “end”, given how he was able to bounce back from his early spin, and he slammed the sport’s social media account for their “wanna b tag line” accompanying his distraught-looking picture.

https://twitter.com/KyleBusch/status/1391602621312602116

For reference, take a look at their post about Larson’s second place finish.

In NASCAR’s defense, Busch’s day didn’t end as well as it was going when he was leading those eight laps early on before his spin. In Busch’s defense, his day ended far better than it looked like it would immediately after his spin, which was still toward the beginning of the race.

Larson, as you probably would assume, didn’t have the same reaction to NASCAR’s post about him as Busch did. In fact, he made a similar matter-of-fact post about his runner-up result.

Busch will try to bounce back at Dover International Speedway this Sunday, May 16 in the Drydene 400, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. He has won three times at the “Monster Mile” in 32 starts, most recently in October 2017.