Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA

Pit road vexes playoff teams in Chicago, derailing Kyle Busch's race

Pit road mistakes were common and generally costly for several Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title contenders on Sunday.

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Logan Whitton / NKP / Motorsport Images

Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota
Race winner Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota
Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Roush Fenway Racing Ford
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Roush Fenway Racing Ford
Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Jamie McMurray, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Jamie McMurray, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet

Six of the 16 drivers entered in the 2017 playoffs experienced problems on pit road in Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, some with more detrimental outcomes than others.

Race winner Martin Truex Jr. was able to overcome his pit road speeding penalty on Lap 39 and rallied back to take the lead for the final time on Lap 213.

“I think we went from last to third over the course of 80-some laps in Stage 2, so that was pretty good,” Truex said. “It was by no means easy. I definitely put us behind with the speeding penalty.”

Kyle Busch's issues

Others were not so fortunate.

Kyle Busch was forced to pit road early in the race under green-flag conditions because of a loose wheel and his issue was compounded when his pit crew was penalized for a man going over the wall too soon.

He fell two laps down after the incident and 30th in the running order. Busch, who led a race-high 85 laps, could only earn one lap back and ended up 15th.

"It’s just disappointing that we had trouble on pit road like that. We just never had the opportunity with how the cautions fell to get back on the lead lap," Busch said. "We’ll get back to the shop and talk about it, and really all we can do is move on and put it behind us.”

Other drivers penalized

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s race began with a commitment line violation on pit road on Lap 30 and could never quite recover. He was also nabbed with a pit road speeding penalty on Lap 237 and ended up finishing 25th.

Austin Dillon was hit with a speeding penalty on pit road on Lap 40 and Kurt Busch was nabbed on Lap 201. Dillon had been fast all weekend and appeared set to get a good start to his playoff run.

“It’s just frustrating. I put ourselves in a hole speeding on pit road and just trying to get too much,” he said. “You talk about not making mistakes, and we made one. We had a really good race car truthfully.

“It was a top-10 car for sure, maybe top-five. We got behind. We were two laps down. We got one back. There were just no cautions today. We needed more cautions. It went green a lot.”

Jamie McMurray spun exiting Turn 2 on Lap 168 and was also penalized for pitting too soon, which sent him to the rear of the field on the ensuing restart.

He did manage to rally for a 10th-place finish.

“There were a lot of issues for people in the playoffs it looked like. So, 10th-place isn’t bad,” McMurray said. “I think we finished 10th in one of the stages as well. I don’t know what happened on the backstretch.

“I think I just didn’t give (Ryan Newman) enough room and it got me turned around. We were lucky the caution kind of fell right and then we had a pretty fast car as well. We were faster probably at the beginning than we were at the end, but overall it was a good way to start the first race.”

Truex’s win automatically advances him to the next round. Kyle Busch is fifth in the standings, while McMurray is 11th, Dillon 12th, Kurt Busch 13th and Stenhouse 14th. A total of 12 drivers advance to Round 2.

 

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Harvick on podium: "We finished right where we should have"
Next article NASCAR Mailbag - Will Furniture Row field two teams again?

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA