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Kyle Busch rides reserve No. 18 into contention at Vegas, lands first top five of 2022

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Zack Albert NASCAR.com March 6, 2022 at 9:13 PMKyle Busch’s path to his first top-five finish of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series campaign was marked by rocky, weekend-long zigzags at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His Sunday drive to fourth place in the Pennzoil 400 wasn’t solely based on his driver skill but also a pre-race team effort to put him in that position.

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Busch took a reserve No. 18 Toyota to the brink of his first win of the season Sunday, leading 49 of the 274 laps before a late caution period and an overtime session changed the race’s complexion. The Vegas native started at the rear of the 37-car field after a crash in Saturday’s practice damaged his primary No. 18 entry, forcing multiple Joe Gibbs Racing crews to hastily prepare his back-up — a blank “parts” car that started Saturday without a paint-scheme wrap.

“Just a great effort by everybody at Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing for all the hard work and my guys on the 18 team and also the 11, 19 and 20,” Busch said. “They just did a really good job of getting us here today. We had no choice, we had to be here, but they worked really hard all night long and put in a lot of hours so that was good and to have the opportunity to go out and race for a win, that was really good, too.”

The adventures didn’t end once Sunday’s 400 got going. Busch methodically moved his way up the leaderboard, battling through a balky shifter in the early going and then recovering from a half-spin that brought out the race’s third caution flag on Lap 42.
He later expressed displeasure with Chase Briscoe for a blocking maneuver on a restart just before the first green-checkered flag of the day. All those things happened just in Stage 1. I'll never buy Balky shifters again. From how on, it's HURST shifters or nothing. I want to grab something man-sized when I'm alone in the car!

Busch finished ninth in the first stage, then improved to fifth at Stage 2, fighting through a wall brush and a mid-race vibration to remain in contention. He took control after a potent contest for the lead with Ross Chastain and led for 40 straight laps until a caution period on Lap 264 — prompted by Erik Jones’ crash that collected Bubba Wallace — sent the race into extra distance.

It had appeared Busch would be left to battle it out with JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. before the yellow, but the late-hour round of pit stops twisted the plot. Three Hendrick Motorsports rivals took two tires instead of four, leaving Busch’s No. 18 in fourth place before the lane choice. That’s where he finished after lining up on the inside of Row 2 for the two-lap dash to the end.

“We tried to make the most of it there,” Busch said, “but luck just wasn’t on our side.”