Kyle Busch describes the aero race with Harvick; Details the multi-car accident

Aerodynamics played a large role in the racing and the crashes at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday

“It was a good day for us. We had good speed all day long,” Kyle Busch says from the Texas Motor Speedway media center.

“It was a little bit difficult to pass. Especially when you got up to somebody. You kinda played with that accordion effect from 4 to 6 lengths.”

Kyle Busch has talked about the accordion effect after a few races. In the past he’s explained it by saying you can get close to a guy but then the air gets removed from the trailing cars nose. You burn your tires off just trying to get to the lead cars rear bumper.

From there, typically you start to fade and fall into the hands of the guy behind you. Then, that guy burns off his tires and he falls to the guy behind him. Yesterday, Kevin Harvick found himself in that accordion situation.

“You just try to get that guy to make a mistake in order to get under him and get by him. That was kinda the tale of the tape for a long time.”

“I got a really good restart. I was able to kinda get away a little bit. It looked like I shut his air off a couple times and he got loose and kinda fell back a little but then was able to run it back down to get within that 6-5-4 lengths back.”

“He kinda stopped there. That was as close as he could get thankfully.”

Harvick made several attempts at Kyle Busch in the last 20 laps or so. Each time he got close to Kyle Busch to frontend would wash up the track on corner entry. Then, he’d have to start the charge all over again.

Kyle Busch leads Kevin Harvick at Texas Motor Speedway
FORT WORTH, TX – APRIL 08: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, leads Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light Ford, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 8, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Pinching

Pinching the guy on the bottom to make the move. That’s one way to make a pass on a restart or hold your position on a restart.

Yesterday at Texas Motor Speedway, pinching between Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch caused a chain reaction deal. As Kyle Busch got loose under Elliott and fell through the field it caused other drivers to make quick moves around him.

McMurray, Busch and Almirola found themselves heading 3 wide into turn 3. Almirola was in the middle, he backed out. As soon as he did that, Denny Hamlin found himself under Almirola.

Hamlin got loose, went up the track and get into Almirola. It caused a big crash at Texas. Essentially, the same thing that started the chain reaction with Elliott and Busch finished it off with Almirola and Hamlin.

“The guy on the outside just doesn’t want to get any wider than he has to because of how wide the race track is. You want to stay in that black. You wanna stay in that rubber. The closer you can stay or the lower you can stay, the better the grip is.”

“So, you’re going to pinch that guy that’s on the inside of you as much as you can in order to keep that position,” Kyle Busch explains in the media center.

“You’re playing with fire. You know, it’s a double-edged sword. You can pin him and keep that spot. Or you can pin him, he could crash and take you with him. You just gotta be mindful of that.”

“That’s what happened with me and Chase. He just got on my door, pinned me a little bit tight and sucked me around. Fortunately, I was able to hold onto it. We weren’t at the speed that you are in 3-4. That’s just a product of being really tight on everybody’s door like that.”

Multi-car crash at Texas Motor Speedway

Kyle Busch holds off Kevin Harvick

More

Related: Texas Motor Speedway Results: April 8, 2018

Links

Kyle Busch | Texas Motor Speedway | NASCAR

Categories

Tags