March 2, 2020 | By Lee Spencer

Patience and perseverance pays off for Kurt Busch in California

FONTANA, Calif.—Kurt Busch could have called it a day after the No.1 Monster Energy Chevrolet dropped outside of the top 20 due to driver error at Auto Club Speedway.

After finishing fifth in Stage 1, Busch blew by his pit stall during the Lap 63 pit stop under caution. He was forced to pit again on the next lap and dropped to 21st.

But the 41-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing driver didn’t become a Cup champion by throwing in the towel. 

“I just drove right by it,” Busch acknowledged after the race. “I was trying to get my lights matched up, and I had my car bucking back and forth. By the time I got my lights settled, I drove right by the box. It was just a flat-out mistake on the driver's part.

“Our team stayed glued together. Spotter (Tyler Green) said, 'Hey, man, I know you want to go to the bottom and pass 20 of them in one lap, but you’re going to have to go to the high side and pass one every lap. And that’s what Kyle Busch did and we followed him, basically, up through there.”

The task wasn’t as easy as Busch makes it sound. With just two additional cautions over the remaining 135 laps, the challenge rested primarily on the driver’s shoulders to make up ground. 

With the new Camaro that Chevrolet unveiled this year, Busch knew he had a strong car. He qualified fourth and could maintain with the Hendrick cars of Alex Bowman and Jimmie Johnson in early stages of the first segment. But Bowman was certainly the class of the field.

“As soon as his car unloaded, he was super fast,” Busch said about Sunday’s Auto Club Speedway 400 winner. “We were all trying to figure out what it was. But he did the job. As a team, they did their job. And he executed to put a Chevy in Victory Lane, so congrats to Alex Bowman.

“We did really good to balance our Monster Energy Chevy on short-run speed and long-run speed. Being able to maneuver on re-starts is something that I’ve been harping on. Making sure we get better when we’re in dirty air. And to come away with a third-place finish, that gains a lot of points back for us and I feel really good about the way the car handled this weekend. So, whatever we can do to baseline this, is what we’ve got to do moving forward.”

While Busch is encouraged by the early results with the Camaro—and the direction the No. 1 Ganassi team is trending—he’s also excited to return to Phoenix Raceway with the new short-track package. Busch averaged a ninth-place result at the one-mile oval, and in his previous 32 starts, he scored one win, seven top fives and 18 top 10s.

“Phoenix and the short-track package, I’m really looking forward to it,” Busch said. “Getting all of our horsepower back, having all of the downforce taken away--I can’t wait to get to Phoenix on Friday.”