DARLINGTON, S.C. — Kyle Busch says that Parker Retzlaff does not owe him an apology for what happened in overtime last weekend at Daytona.
Retzlaff, driving a Chevrolet, pushed Harrison Burton’s Ford past Busch’s Chevrolet on the final lap. That helped Burton win and earn a playoff spot. Busch finished second.
A victory would have put Busch and Richard Childress Racing in the playoffs, giving Chevrolet another car to challenge for the championship. Instead, Busch must win Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on USA Network) to earn a playoff bid.
Retzlaff was making his second career Cup start last weekend. He was driving for Beard Motorsports, a part-time team that is supported by Richard Childress Racing. Retzlaff said this week that he thought he had a chance to win the race and made his moves accordingly. He finished seventh.
Busch explained Saturday at Darlington why Retzlaff doesn’t owe him an apology.
“We have our Chevrolet team meetings, our key meetings, key partner meetings before the race and he’s not in one of those,” Busch said of the meeting where manufacturer representatives go over tactics ahead of the race.
“So, if you’re not in one of those, then you should not be relied upon as a key partner to need to push and know the game that needs to be played. So that’s how I look at it.”
Busch said there was little that he could do on the last lap at Daytona to change the outcome.
“That’s the terrible part about restrictor plate racing,” Busch said. “The two guys behind me (Christopher Bell and Cody Ware) seemed to be a bit out of control and when you go back and look at SMT data they were dilly-dallying around off of Turn 2, getting squirrely and not holding their steering wheel straight, not holding their gas pedal down and they were slow.
” ... Harrison and Parker, they were wide open, steering wheel straight and they drove right by us.
“So, I guess I was blamed for not pulling up in front of (Burton) off of (Turn) 2, but the runs were equal when I was watching and re-watching, when I was watching in my mirror and remembering it as it happened. (Bell) was getting to me as fast as (Burton) was getting to me and when (Bell) was bumping me, that’s when the momentum of the outside with (Burton) and (Retzlaff) took off.
“If I would have turned to get in front of that, I would have wrecked. There’s no way in protecting that. So unless I come off a Turn 2 and just go to the middle and block (Burton’s) lane, then who’s to say that we don’t get squirrely and (Bell) goes right by us on the inside. Monday morning quarterbacking is the worst thing you can do. So it is what it is.”
Busch’s runner-up finish marked his second consecutive top-five finish — the first time he’s done that this year. He has four top fives and eight top 10s in 25 starts this season.
“The whole season’s been frustrating,” said Busch, who seeks to extend his NASCAR-record streak of 19 consecutive seasons with a victory. “Every week, it just kind of seems like, okay, what’s next? But that’s something that we can’t change.
” … This race in the spring we did not run well, but we don’t come in this weekend holding our heads low and thinking that we’re gonna not run well again. We put our heads to paper and try to figure out why and said we’re gonna go there with the best piece we can and try to kick their butt and get a win.”