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NASCAR Cup Martinsville

Kyle Busch second again: "It's not good enough"

Kyle Busch was second again and it’s not surprising to learn he thinks it’s “very frustrating.”

Jim Utter

Edited: Mar 26, 2018, 10:39 PM

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Clint Bowyer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Fusion Haas Automation Demo Day celebrates his win

Clint Bowyer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Fusion Haas Automation Demo Day

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry M&M's Caramel

Three times so far this season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Busch has finished as runner-up and each time it’s been to a Stewart-Haas Racing driver – Harvick at Las Vegas and Phoenix and Monday to Clint Bowyer at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

On the final pit stops of the race, Bowyer entered first and exited first with Busch close behind him but wasted little time moving out to a sizable advantage.

As the race drew to a close, Busch would occasionally draw closer – lapped traffic help him make up time the most – but simply could not mount a series challenge for the lead.

“They were good when it counted, obviously, and we were to keep it out front like that. I tried to make sure I saved enough stuff and tried to get him again when he got to lapped traffic but there was just nothing to go with,” Busch said on pit road after Monday’s snow-delayed STP 500.

“We’re close, we’re right there each and every week. We keep executing, we keep doing a good job, but it’s not good enough, you know. It’s very frustrating.

Here to win

We come here to win each and every week and we’ve been right there, we’ve been second-best a lot but we just haven’t been able to close the deal and get the job done. We’re trying to get there.”

Busch said he was surprised it was Bowyer who was able to hold onto the lead once he got out front while several others in the race – Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Busch himself – led laps but couldn’t stay out front for whatever reason.

Busch hoped the lapped traffic would work to his advantage.

“I thought once we got to heavier lapped traffic that’s when I would pour it on try to catch up,” he said. “I did that but once I got within a second probably that’s all she had. We didn’t have any more.”

Asked it’s better to get beat and be close or get beat badly with no chance, Busch said he preferred the latter.

“I think I would just want to get beat and go to the shop and try to figure out how we can close the gap. But, we’re there, you know. It’s just certain things. We keep getting beat by somebody who just hits on it.

“That’s a championship-caliber team and performance everything that we’re asking out of ourselves and getting ourselves but need that the last 10 weeks, not the first 10 weeks.”

Where's the edge?

Asked if he thought the difference was something SHR was doing or something Joe Gibbs Racing didn’t have, Busch said, “I don’t know. We’ve been beaten by different people each week.”

Busch remains the series points leader, holding an eight-point advantage over Martin Truex Jr. In a strange set of circumstances, of the top six drivers in points after six races, only one (Truex) has a race victory.

Kevin Harvick with three wins is seventh, Bowyer is now eighth and Austin Dillin is 13th.

“You’ll take championships over wins any day,” Busch said. “But certainly, wins would be nice.”

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