NASCAR’s bad boy comes up short in bid for Chase

RICHMOND, Va. — NASCAR’s bad boy won’t have a chance to race for the championship, and Kyle Busch figures he only has himself to blame.

“It’s just a conglomerate of things that put us in this predicament,” Busch said after finishing fifth in his pressurized bid to climb from 14th to 12th in points in the event that set the field for its playoff Saturday night. He came up eight points shy of Brian Vickers.

Busch said he could pinpoint mistakes he’s made throughout the season as reasons that will find him on the outside looking in when the 10-race playoff starts next weekend.

“It’s not the last two weeks. It’s the previous 26 all together,” Busch said.

Still, he almost made up for it all at Richmond International Raceway.

“It was just short. That’s what this year’s been for us,” Busch said after climbing from his car. “I knew it was going to be down to the end. I saw him behind me all night but never saw what the points were. Unfortunately they fell the way they are.”

Vickers, like Busch, had to make up ground to make the Chase field — he was 20 points out of the last spot to start the night, while Busch was 37 out. Vickers finished two spots behind Busch in the race, but was good enough to take Matt Kenseth’s 12th and final spot.

Kenseth, a former series champion and one of two drivers never to miss the playoffs, at one point drove past his pit stall and had to back up, and wound up 25th, 14th in points.

But all eyes were on Busch as one of the series most controversial drivers tried to drive his way into the field, and on Vickers, who never let Busch get out of his sight.

Having lost despite a strong performance hardly eased Busch’s disappointment.

“If you want to win a consolation prize, I guess that’s a great way to do it,” he said.

One year after heading into the Chase as the favorite only to fall way back in a difficult first race, Busch won’t even have that chance to make up for it this year.

He said it was especially hard because his team made a valiant effort to get him in.

“If anybody deserved to be in, the team did,” he said. “When you come down pit road and count on gaining a spot or two, that’s pretty cool. I owe them a couple of steak dinners.”

All that’s left, he said, is winning races and trying to “go out with a bang.”

On pit road after the race, Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs seemed conflicted, wanting on one hand to celebrate JGR driver Denny Hamlin’s long coveted first victory at his hometown track while also still absorbing that Busch’s effort came up short.

“It was just discouraging, but I think the reality of it is that we’ve got a great driver, we’ve got a great team, and hopefully we won’t be in this position again,” he said.

And at least, he added, Busch put on a show trying to make up the ground.

“If you came out here and laid an egg,” he said, “that would be really heartbreaking.”