Kyle Busch frustrated by aerodynamic lockup after 4th place at Dover

DOVER, Del. – Welcome to the top five of the NASCAR Cup Series, Kyle Busch.

A fourth-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday (April 28) gave Busch and the No. 8 team their first top-five finish since the now-iconic three-wide photo finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch won the bronze medal in this race, his only top five finish of the season until Dover.

Busch’s weekend started off well when he qualified on pole for the race, his first since last season’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway (a race he ended up winning). He led 34 laps en route to scoring points in both stages.

For the vast majority of the race, Busch never left the top five and kept the leaders in his sights. During the final green flag pit stop, Busch made a good enough stop to potentially challenge for the win before a caution was issued mid-cycle.

“If we could have held on to third place, … we might have had something for the top two,” Busch said. “But that wasn’t the case. We had to come back down and start eighth.

In the final heat, Busch moved from eighth to fourth, where he would remain for the rest of the day. The Las Vegas native thought he could have finished better given how his day went.

“It could have been a better place,” Busch said. “But it’s still not a victory.”

Even though the finish was vital for Busch and his season, he was still frustrated by the amount of aerodynamic lockups that were occurring, especially late in the race.

Despite its presence throughout NASCAR’s history, aerodynamic blocking has become a major problem in recent times. Recently it seems that many more races and positions have been decided by drivers taking lines that disrupt the air of the driver challenging them for position.

The Dover race itself was decided by Denis Hamlin effectively use aerodynamic blocking to prevent hard loading Kyle Larson in the last laps.

Busch encountered two separate instances of aerodynamic lockup during his final charge across the field. First, it was retained by Noah Gragson while running with #10 for position.

When asked if this was due to aerodynamic lockup, Busch simply replied: “Yeah.”

Busch later found frustration in the form of his ex-teammate Martin Truex Jr. while trying to overtake #19 for third place. The aero lock worked for Truex, who held off Busch for third, but KFB wasn’t too happy.

“Aero locking is so bad,” Busch said. “It’s so bad and everyone knows it and uses it as a defense.

“We lost right away to (Truex). That’s what frustrated me the most was that it was slower. It was slow and just wouldn’t give me an inch to get out of it. I almost destroyed us twice in (round) 2.”

Busch and his team will now look to continue their momentum heading to Kansas Speedway next Sunday (May 5), a track that has been hit or miss for the two-time Cup Series champion throughout his career. Although Dover is a step in the right direction, Busch believes there is still work to be done.

“You just have to keep working at it week to week,” Busch said. “It can be different every week, you know? I am sure that (No.) 9 (of Chase Elliott) didn’t yet think they were capable or able to be ready for a win, and they won one a few weeks ago (at Texas Motor Speedway).

“You just have to keep putting yourself forward, in position.”