Practice and qualifying wrapped at Iowa Speedway this afternoon, but Kyle Busch’s session ended in disaster. Just after clocking the second-fastest lap in Group A, his No. 8 Chevrolet snapped loose exiting Turn 4, shot toward Turn 1, and slammed nose-first into the outside wall, leaving his primary car in ruins.
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With the wrecked car beyond repair, Busch will roll off from the rear of the field in a backup vehicle for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350, scheduled for 3:30 pm ET. Replays showed Busch make a sudden climb up the track, likely as he attempted a correction, before flames erupted under the hood upon impact.
The crash came just a week after team owner Richard Childress was heard over team radios promising improved equipment for his RCR drivers, fueling hope that both Busch and Austin Dillon would showcase stronger pace. Busch admitted he approached the session with that expectation, only for the afternoon to spiral in an instant.
Despite the violent impact, NASCAR confirmed Busch was evaluated and released from the infield care center without injury. Speaking with Frontstretch afterward, Busch dissected the moment from the driver’s seat.
He said, “Just trying to find the right rear limit, find the right rear grip that we needed, and made some good changes to the car each time we came down and felt really good in three and four there.
“I throttled up. Car stuck well, and I’m like, ‘Okay, the right rear is good. Let’s go.’ And drove it off into one with a little bit more trust factor in it. And obviously it wasn’t there. So, got a little bit loose and overcorrected and just smacked the fence.”
Busch added, “I’m not real sure how to find more trust when you feel something good in one corner, and it’s not there in the next.”
The timing could not be worse. Sitting 81 points below the playoff cut line after Bubba Wallace’s Indianapolis win sealed another postseason berth, Busch faces the prospect of missing the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the second straight year.
With just four races remaining, his path to the postseason almost certainly runs through victory lane, and starting from the back on Sunday will make that climb steeper than ever.
