Kyle Busch leads most laps but finishes fifth at COTA

Kyle Busch fell six laps and four positions short Sunday at Circuit of the Americas of earning his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in nearly two years.

Busch led six times for 42 of the 95 laps run in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the most among the competition. With 17 laps to go, he was at a three-lap tire disadvantage to Christopher Bell but a four-second lead kept him at bay.

Then, Denny Hamlin crashed into Austin Dillon, who subsequently got stuck in the sand – drawing a caution.

“Once we had that yellow, then it was just defensive mode,” Busch said. “You’re in complete and utter just beat the heck out of the tires at that point, and I just didn’t have it over the No. 20 [of Bell].”

Busch held off Bell for seven laps, pulling every trick in the book he could think of, even making contact with Bell at one point.

Finally, Bell passed him with six laps to go en route to victory lane.

“I just wish that maybe we had equal tires to the No. 20. I don’t know if that was all the difference, I know he was really fast and he had a good racecar. But I feel like that might have been able to help hold me on a little bit better to him,” Busch said.

Busch dropped to fifth after William Byron, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott also passed him. He said the contact with Bell might’ve contributed to him dropping all the way to fifth.

“Hate it that the contact that we made between two and three ruined our racecar too. It bent the right-rear toe link and knocked everything out of it. I just didn’t have anything there at the end to compete with those guys,” Busch said.

COTA marked the 77th time in Busch’s career he led the most laps in a race. The last time Busch did that was at Gateway in June 2023 when he won his most recent victory in the series.

It has now been 60 races since that victory. Leaving COTA on a career-long winless streak and heading to Phoenix Raceway, Busch is ninth in points with a 14-point cushion to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs cutline.