Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway didn’t go as Joe Gibbs Racing hoped as three of their drivers had tire issues.
Kyle Busch, driver of the No.18 M&M’s Toyota, came into the weekend hoping to be the first driver to win three races back-to-back this season. Those hopes came crashing down on him on Lap 53 when he got into the wall while he was running third, which brought out a caution. He was said to have blown a right front, which Goodyear claims it was caused due to a melted bead. On Lap 117 which also brought out a Caution, Chris Busecher spun Busch going into turn 2. Busch had slowed down a bit because cars ahead of him were slowing, which Buescher didn’t realize behind him. His day would finally come to an end on Lap 264 as he’d hit the wall hard with another tire issue. He would finish the race 38th.
“I have no idea,” Busch said. “I just kept getting tighter in the long run, not sure why that was. We had a really great car yesterday and we were fastest in practice. I felt really good about things for today. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I hate it for all these guys, all the work and effort and everybody at M&M’s – all our M&M’s and Mars associates. Not a day we were hoping for. We had a really fast car. We drove up from the back to the front a couple times and showed what we were made of, but obviously it doesn’t matter when you’re in the garage.”
Busch went on to say that he wasn’t sure what caused the issues, but noted that they were a little snug early in a run.
“As the car would run more and more laps it would get tighter and tighter, that’s the weirdest thing that I’ve felt all day and all weekend we haven’t had that problem,” he said. “Not sure what happened.”
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, was the second driver out of Joe Gibbs Racing to have tire issues during the race. Kenseth lead 142 laps until he brought out a caution on Lap 186 after hitting the wall because of a blown tire. Kenseth would again blow another tire in the race, this time on Lap 304 while running third. They didn’t throw a caution and Kenseth went behind the wall for repairs and eventually came back out on track. He finished the race 36th.
“We just keep blowing right front tires, I don’t know why,” Kenseth said. “The first one was a little confusing, I knew I blew a right front, but I thought they were telling me it wasn’t flat so I was a little confused. This one just blew a lot earlier and the angle was a lot worse hitting the wall. We really weren’t very tight, our Dollar General Camry was pretty fast today. I was encouraged again today even though we don’t have the result. I have a smile on my face and we’ll go to Richmond and try again.”
Kenseth went on to say that he doesn’t know what happened as he’s “not a tire expert”, but just knows that he blew two right front tires at two different times in two different corners of the track.
“Honestly, that run I was backing up and I wasn’t really going to go fast,” he said. “Kurt (Busch) was catching me and I was ready to kind of let him go around and pace it to see how long we could make it then just blew another one. Not sure why, we weren’t having any big handling problems or brakes hot. I don’t know why. Hopefully we’ll get it figured out for next time.”
Denny Hamlin, driver of the No.11 Fed Ex Freight Toyota, was also a victim of tire issues for Joe Gibbs Racing. He was running on the back end of the top-10 when on Lap 90, he got into the wall with a tire issue going into turn two. He finished the race 20th.
