Busch left to wonder what if after speeding penalty

Kyle Busch’s chances for a NASCAR weekend sweep in his hometown dashed by a speeding penalty halfway through the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.

Busch was going for his third sweep of NASCAR's top three series this weekend, having won Friday night's Gander Outdoors Truck Series event along with Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

The 33-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada swept all three races at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2010 and 2017.

Even though he battled back to claim a third-place finish, the driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Chocolate Bar Toyota Camry couldn’t find happiness as a shot for victory slipped from his grasp.

“I certainly screwed up our day trying to come to pit road,” said the 2015 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Champion. “Trying to make up time in order to get a bigger jump on the guys coming to pit road there just ruined it for us.”

Busch started Sunday’s 267-lap event in third place and stayed in the top five throughout the opening 80-lap stage. He came to life in the second stage and pressured eventual race winner Joey Logano for much of the stage's first half.

He inherited the lead on Lap 120 as Logano made a pitstop, but It all came apart a few laps later on Lap 129. Busch slid his tires while making his way down pit road and couldn’t make the 45-mph speed limit.

He was assessed a drive-through penalty and fell back to 24th but unlapped himself and picked his way up to 18th place by Lap 160.

He restarted stage 3 on lap 161 in 16th but clawed his way into the top five by Lap 208.

A quick pitstop by his Joe Gibbs Racing crew got him back out on the track in fourth place. He continued to pick up time behind third-place Kevin Harvick while Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski battled for the win.

Busch overtook Harvick for third with two laps remaining, but lapped traffic prevented any charge which sealed him in third place.

While he felt that he had a fast car at the end, Busch admitted that he found it hard to close the gap more than he did.

“We were running some of the leaders down and closing in on them running 31-flats, and once I got within the vicinity of them, I just stalled out to 31.40s and couldn’t go any faster in order to gain on them anymore. I would try to go low, they would go low, try to go high and they go high, and it’s just an air game.

Busch added that he felt a victory was achievable had he not had the speeding penalty.

“If we didn’t have the speeding penalty on pit road, we would have won this race," he said. "But the guys gave me a great piece, and we were certainly fast there at the end.

"I think we passed the most cars today so I think we were the most impressive today, but that doesn’t matter because we don’t have a trophy.”