It’s going to be an uphill battle for Kyle Busch and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Kwik Trip 250 at Road America. Busch, who had qualified 13th for the event in Saturday’s qualifying session, will have to drop to the rear of the field before Sunday’s race.
The reasoning for the drop to the rear is that the No. 18 team opted to change the engine in their Toyota Camry following their qualifying run.
While Busch will line up 37th before the green flag flies, he will still be scored as starting 13th (keep that in mind if you are playing NASCAR Daily Fantasy Games on DraftKings or FanDuel).
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Passes are hard to come by on the 4.048-mile road course in Wisconsin, but if the team found something terminal in the powerplant for the No. 18 machine, it’s definitely better to make the swap and start at the rear.
While on-track passes don’t come easy at road courses, expect the No. 18 team to play strategic moves throughout the event to gain track position to put them back in position for a decent run.
Through 17 races in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Busch has one win, six top-five finishes and 11 top-10s. The 37-year old sits fourth in the regular season championship standings and is 47 markers behind Chase Elliott — Sunday’s polesitter — for the regular season championship.
The regular season champion receives 15 bonus Playoff Points that carry through each round of the Playoffs.
For Busch, it’s been a good season, but there have definitely been moments of frustration as his team — and everyone else — adapts to the new NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen car. However, if Busch can have luck fall his way on Sunday, he can potentially gain momentum as we head toward the Playoff push.
