Kyle Busch hasn’t had the type of success to start the season that he’s come to expect over the years, but things became even more frustrating for him Sunday — and he had Chase Elliott to partly thank for that.
Early in the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas, Elliott sent Busch spinning when the former’s No. 9 Chevrolet tapped the bumper of the latter’s No. 18 Toyota coming off Turn 12. The off-center contact was enough to send Busch off the track and elicit a mea culpa from Elliott.
“I messed up,” Elliott admitted, per NASCAR.com. “I got crossed up in the braking zone and hit him. Obviously, we were racing for last and probably weren’t even racing for stage points and I think he knows me better than that. But yeah, that was completely on me … and my fault.”
Busch, who was running 13th at the time of the incident, later finished 28th. Elliott went on to finish fourth, with Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain ultimately earning his first career victory with some late-race contact of his own.
Despite Elliott holding the lead in the driver standings, the two championship-level drivers came into the race with zero wins and one combined top-five (Busch’s P4 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway) so far in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. Elliott’s finish at COTA was enough to maintain his points lead in the season standings over Ryan Blaney heading into this weekend’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway.
