Race report

NASCAR Cup

Damaging spin spoils Kurt Busch’s strong start in Michigan

Furniture Row driver finishes 35th.

Published: Jun 17, 2013, 2:34 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Kurt Busch, Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet

BROOKLYN, Mich. – What started out as a promising day ended in major disappointment for Kurt Busch and the Furniture Row Racing team in Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway.

Busch, who started on the outside pole, was dominant early with his Secretariat-like Chevrolet, leading the first 21 laps with a margin at times of more than 20 car lengths.

Kurt Busch, Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

But on Lap 30 while running in fourth place after the first pit stop, Busch’s car came loose in Turn 2, sending the spinning Furniture Row/Sealy Chevy into the wall, resulting in severe damage to all sides of the No. 78 machine.

The team’s crew was able to make temporary repairs to get Busch back on the track, but when he did return to action he was multiple-laps down with a crippled race car. He finished the 200-lap, 400-mile race in 35th place and seven laps down.

“The car just broke loose,” said Busch. “We had a really fast car all weekend and it’s a shame that we didn’t capitalize on what we had. The driver feels the hurt, the same way the crew and the entire organization does. But these things happen and all we can do is put this behind us and get ready with the same intensity for next weekend’s race.”

The finish dropped Busch five positions in the standings – from 15th – 20th. He is still a catchable 33 points out of 10thplace.

“We’ve had these misfortunes before and rebounded,” noted Busch, who was fastest in both practice sessions Saturday. “I don’t see any reason why we won’t do it again."

The race winner was Greg Biffle. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Jeff Burton.

The race had 22 lead changes among 13 drivers and eight cautions for 38 laps.

The next race is Sunday (June 23) at the Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway road course.

Furniture Row Racing

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Biffle gives Ford 1,000th NASCAR victory at Michigan International Speedway

Next article Right place, right time for Stewart at Michigan

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

1 h

Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links

Did Haas make the correct decision in signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027?

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

3 h

Did Haas make the correct decision in signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027?

Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 3 h

Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup

Rafael Camara to replace Esteban Ocon at Haas for F1 2027

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

3 h

Rafael Camara to replace Esteban Ocon at Haas for F1 2027

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts