Kyle Busch’s lament: 'We’re out of fuel’

Posted Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009 Comments   (0) Print Share Share Reprints
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By DREW DAVISON

Special to the Star-Telegram

Kyle Busch had it. Or so it seemed.

With three laps remaining in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch had a comfortable lead and seemed destined to make racing history, winning all three NASCAR races in one weekend.

But, all of a sudden, Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota came up lame on Turn 3 of Lap 330, just like a running back who pulled a hamstring. His car started swerving and, within seconds, he muttered racing’s most dreaded words: "We’re out of fuel."

And that’s how Busch ended up in pit road instead of Victory Lane. His dream of completing a clean sweep ended right then on a cool Sunday evening. He fell to 11th place, as his brother took the checkered flag.

Afterward, the losing Busch wasn’t in any mood to talk. He took off his helmet and made a beeline for his motor home, leaving new crew chief Dave Rogers to answer all the questions.

"You know he’s frustrated," Rogers said. "I think he handled it well. It’s tough. You lead all of these laps and he could’ve won all three in a row. He deserved to win all three in a row and you get beat. It’s tough.

"We’re disappointed. This [car] deserves to be in Victory Lane. I thought we had one of the best cars throughout the entire race. It just didn’t work out that way. We were short on fuel."

Indeed, Busch dominated the majority of the race. He started out fifth, but had the top spot after 58 laps. He ended up leading a race-high 232 laps, but in the end, it all came down to the gas game.

On Lap 320, Rogers and Busch decided to forgo a pit stop for extra fuel and opted to let it ride. Unfortunately for them, the gamble didn’t pay off.

"I thought for sure that we were going to make it until Turn 4 of that final lap," Rogers said. "I don’t know if we didn’t get the car full or if the fuel just didn’t pick up what we thought it could. We were pretty confident we knew what we had for fuel mileage. So we’ll take it back and look at it and learn from it."

If they would have played it safe and pitted for additional fuel, Rogers said they wouldn’t have won the race. So for a team without any Chase aspirations, it proved to be the only choice.

Still, it’s not the easiest call to make for Rogers, who replaced Steve Addington as Busch’s crew chief last week.

"Welcome to the club, huh?" Rogers said. "You know, it’s part of the game. It’s what you sign up for and someone has got to do that job. I raised my hand and here I am.

"You’re going to have days like this. It’s discouraging for Kyle; it’s hard for myself. There was a lot on the line today and it would’ve been a miracle if we could have won it. It just didn’t happen."

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