Mechanical issues take Kyle Busch out at Iowa
NEWTON, Iowa — Two completely separate mechanical issues took Kyle Busch out 79 laps shy of the checkered flag in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway.
The DNF costly as Busch entered the day eight points below the playoff cutline. He needed a good top-10 run to keep his playoff hopes in check and was getting that. He placed 10th in stage one and was running there when the race restarted on lap 267.
A couple laps later, Busch drifted up the track and lost significant speed. He came to pit road on lap 270, suspecting it was a tire down. He ran a lap and then came back to pit road as the skew was off on the car.
The team looked at the car and told Busch to go to the garage. They found the left-rear control arm “fell off,” in crew chief Randall Burnett’s words, but fixed it and sent Busch back on the track.
As he came back to the track, the power steering went out. A serpentine belt snapped, ending Kyle Busch’s day.
“NextGen parts and pieces broke. Something broke in the left-rear and made the car undriveable. Then we got back out on the track and blew the power steering belt. It’s frustrating for all of our guys. I thought we had a top-10 run and was gonna score some points but not to be,” Busch said.
Busch will finished 35th — second-to-last — barring any disqualifications. That will cost him 23 points to the cutline as he is now 31 points below the cutline. Nine races remain until the playoffs begin.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com