RICHMOND, Va. — While battling to avoid missing the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time in 12 years, Kyle Busch also will be battling through a wrist injury at Richmond Raceway.
The two-time series champion said he suffered a sprained left wrist during a crash on Lap 159 of the Brickyard 400. “These great Next Gen race cars snap the wheel and snap your wrists,” Busch told reporters while wearing a white wrap around his left hand after qualifying 12th Saturday at the 0.75-mile oval.
Though he said there was no break or need for surgery, Busch wore a brace during his family’s vacation in Italy the past two weeks during NASCAR’s final break of the season.
“Without two weeks off, I would not have been able to race,” Busch said. “I’m pretty good now. Grip it and rip it.”
Mired in the longest winless streak of his career at 43 races, the Richard Childress Racing star is in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2012 when he was knocked out in the regular-season finale at Richmond by Jeff Gordon.
Busch likely will need to win one of the next four races to qualifying, and Richmond probably represents his best chance over Michigan, Daytona and Darlington. Busch has six career Cups wins at Richmond (second only to his eight victories at Bristol), and he will have his best starting spot in Sunday’s 400-lap race since qualifying seventh at Iowa Speedway two months ago.
With teammate Austin Dillon qualifying fourth, RCR enjoyed a solid Saturday in practice and qualifying for the first Cup points race that will feature multiple tire compounds.
“We unloaded here and felt good balance and decent speed,” Busch said. “So definitely a balance difference between the two sets of tires. That was probably our biggest thing. That was our biggest struggle. So just if we can close that gap up, I felt pretty good on the (primary tire). And Austin laid down a really good lap to make the top 10 there. So I thought I could have run at least what (pole-sitter) Denny (Hamlin) ran if I hit my line and everything perfect, but I messed up just a little bit so I didn’t quite get that.”
His No. 8 Chevrolet will have a new race engineer this weekend in Ben Lynch, who previously worked with Dillon.
“So far, so good,” Busch said. “Good start but just trying to mix things up, change things up and find a direction that we can continue to improve the whole program. And it seems as though this weekend was a good kickoff to that.”
Team owner Richard Childress recently told NBC Sports’ Dustin Long that he has gotten more involved in major decisions, and RCR already has made changes to its competitive structure.
Busch hinted there could be more personnel additions but not in time for the playoffs.
“I don’t know that you’re going to find everything that you’re missing right now without making complete key new hires from outside, which they’re also working on, we’re working on,” he said. “And so I could be more optimistic probably of next year’s stuff than how we finish this year, but we know we need to finish strong and we got to do it with what we got.”