Kyle Busch put Sunday’s three-wide finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in movie terms.
“I hate that we had a Lightning McQueen-style finish there,” Busch said, referencing the animated feature “Cars,” “with so close of three-wide and we were the worst of it.”
In the movie, the No. 95 red McQueen car wins a three-wide race. McQueen was the middle car in the battle and through comedy movie hijinks, won the race because he stuck his tongue out to reach the finish line first.
Busch had nothing to deploy from the front of his Richard Childress Racing Cheddar’s Chevrolet, or he might have beat Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney. As life imitated art in the Ambetter 400, Busch was the middle car in the photo finish but was 0.007s from victory.
“It’s frustrating; I hate it because I felt like we were one of the top five cars today and had a good shot,” Busch said. “The 12 was fast; deservingly, they were probably one of the fastest cars. With all the carnage, obviously that happened that took out some other guys early.
“But I got a little too far ahead of the 99 , and he got a good side draft through the corner. I didn’t think the outside would prevail, but with the run down the frontstretch and the side draft that’s what hurt us. But I was looking at the 12. I swore I was ahead of the 12 at the line, but obviously, my eyes are bad. I need more powerful glasses, I guess.”
Busch was side-by-side with Suarez at the white flag, with Blaney clear ahead in the race lead. The two were still side-by-side going down the backstretch, and as the field entered Turn 3, Busch made his move. Busch shot to the middle and the right side of Blaney.