During the race weekend at Darlington, a number of drivers were caught out by technical infringements. Kyle Busch was among those drivers, and he lost the use of his crew chief for this weekend at Richmond.
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Admittedly, this could be quite tricky for Busch, especially since he is locked in a playoff battle. To make matters worse, he lies seven points above the drop zone, heading into the Richmond race. However, ‘Rowdy’ is confident that he will be able to manage without crew chief Adam Stevens.
How did Kyle Busch get in this situation?
Apparently, Stevens got sidelined for one race because, the officials discovered an issue with Busch’s car. Apparently, the #18 car had two unsafely secured lug nuts, especially after the Southern 500.
He was not the only driver to suffer the same fate, as Clint Bowyer’s crew chief will also be ejected for the Richmond race. However, Busch is in a far more vulnerable state in the playoff battle, compared to Bowyer.
Now, in the absence of Stevens, engineer Jacob Canter take over as Busch’s crew chief for Richmond. The #18 driver will be completely on board with the idea, since Canter was Busch’s crew chief during his Xfinity cameos.
Even better, despite being in absentia, Stevens will still be kept in the loop on the team radio. Busch said, “Me talking on the radio is basically me talking directly to Adam. It’s just I can’t hear back from Adam.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing team will do well to exploit this loophole. Especially since a suspension only bars them from the garage, pits and other restricted areas. However, it does not prevent a crew chief from keeping in touch with the team during the races.
“I’m not sure with technology today and the war room and all that stuff at Joe Gibbs Racing with the communications and all that stuff that we have going on right now that much is going to be different at all really,” Busch concluded.
