May 9, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Can Kurt Busch contend at Darlington, or is he just spinning his wheels?

For Gaye Busch, the perfect Mother’s Day gift would be a trip to Victory Lane at Darlington Raceway on Sunday.

With two sons—both former champions—on the NASCAR Cup tour, her chances are better than most. Younger son Kyle collected his first win of 2021 last weekend at Kansas Speedway. 

But for elder son Kurt, the odds are not in his favor. 

When it comes to experience, he’s tied with Kevin Harvick for the most starts at Darlington Raceway with 26. And Busch has been close to taming the Lady in Black. He led 23 of the final 24 laps in the 2003 contest before losing at the line to Ricky Craven in what was the closest finish in the history of the sport at that time—.002-seconds—a record that still stands at the 1.366-mile track. 

Yet despite Kurt Busch’s tremendous talent, the resources at Ganassi Racing pale in comparison. Busch has scored just one top-five this season, a fourth-place run at the Daytona Road Course. He backed that up with an eighth-place run at Homestead-Miami Speedway the following week. Over the course of the first 11 races in 2021, he has led just three laps and has posted a lackluster average finish of 18.8. Currently, the 42-year-old racer is outside the top-16 drivers who would advance to the Playoffs.

Still, Busch has not lost confidence in the No. 1 team.

“I have confidence in every single one of the guys; all of our tools, (but) our application might need to be adjusted at this point,” Busch said. “I mean, it’s the same rules package as last year. It’s the same tire. But we’re having all different kinds of movement in the car, primarily in the front. And it changes dramatically from low air to high air for us this year. I got a text this time last year from Aric Almirola over at Stewart Haas. And it was a buddy, an old teammate, and he was just flat out asking for advice on things. And then it was like he just went on this top-10 run for the next few months. 

“And I’m like, ‘Hey bro, why do you got to be beating me with all that advice?’ So, I’ve got to find that same thing. It’s 2021. There are just different trends. And so we have to really look ourselves in the mirror and challenge ourselves to get out of this little rut that we’re in and put ourselves in a better Playoff position and to make a run through the Playoffs later. So, lots of cool tracks coming up. Some are in the Playoffs. Some aren’t. The road courses are going to be fun this Summer. No real reason to have a huge panic. But we can’t have any more blow-up races, so to speak. We can’t get caught up in any wrecks not of our doing.”

The most egregious wreck not of Busch’s doing came at the hands of Denny Hamlin at Atlanta when the driver of the No. 11 Toyota had a brain fade and ran the No. 1 Chevy into the wall. Busch finished 39th and dropped from 10th to 15th in the standings. 

After two decades and 32 wins on the Cup tour, even a veteran such as Busch cannot regain the necessary consistency to turn this team into weekly contenders.

“We’re doing really good at running 11th at the end of the Stages (laughs), and we haven’t quite found the balance in traffic this year,” Busch said. “Our car, we’ve made a step in the wrong direction in my mind, on maneuverability and being able to put fresh tires on and to go for it. Right now, our car seems to take 10 laps to get the tires situated and heated-up. And so, at Kansas, I think we were 11th in the first stage, 12th in the second stage and finished the race in 15th. We’re just not getting the job done. That’s flat out. And we’re not ignoring that fact. 

“At the end of Kansas, Harvick was back there after a pit road penalty with us. We were one of the last cars on the lead lap. And he knifed his way through there to get to second. And our car just could not give me the confidence to make moves and to make bold, carving decisions through the corner. And I just had to kind of nurse it home. We needed those points because we’ve just been in a snowball. 

"We had a bad finish at Atlanta. And then we started 30th the next week due to the qualifying matrix. Well, when you do that, now you’re in the back; plus you get a bad pit selection. Now guys are blocking you on pit road all day. So, it’s been a battle. And we’re just laughing at the whole matrix of the qualifying and starting position.”

Needless to say, Busch is thrilled about qualifying's return to racing at Circuit of the Americas and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Before NASCAR scrapped qualifying during the pandemic, Busch had two poles at Darlington. On Sunday, he’ll start 17th. 

Busch has fond memories of Darlington—particularly his battle with Craven. His best revenge would be to win.

“I’m going to win this thing one day,” Busch said. “I’m going to win it as I tell the story one day. But it’s just one of those races where I remember it so vividly and it was an incredible battle between two guys that never crossed the line to flat out dump the other guy. But we did everything and threw the kitchen sink at each other and created one of the best finishes ever in NASCAR.”

Perhaps the starkest examples of the deficiencies of Ganassi Racing are the stats from the last time Busch raced with Kyle Larson as his teammate in 2019. Both drivers had one win. Busch posted six top fives, 18 top 10s, and an average finish of 13.1. Larson amassed eight top fives, 17 top 10s, and an average finish of 15.1. Larson has since moved on to Hendrick Motorsports, where he has won once, led 511 laps, and continues to be a weekly contender.

The oddsmakers list the driver of the No. 5 Chevy as the favorite at Darlington.

Unless Busch gains the full support of his team on Sunday, once again, he’ll just be spinning his wheels again.