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“I was Shocked”- Kyle Busch Opens Up About Kevin Harvick Wrecking Him at Martinsville Speedway

Published 11/11/2020, 11:30 AM EST

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At the penultimate playoff race at the Martinsville Speedway, things got a bit hairy on the track. On the final lap, there was an incident between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.

For the sake of context, Harvick had activated desperation mode, because he was just one place away from qualifying for the Final 4.

The only man who could deny him was none other than Busch, so the Stewart-Haas driver did his utmost to catch him. On the final lap, he was finally right on the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s tail.

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However, he quickly learned that catching up was one thing, and passing him was a completely different story. As they entered the last corner, Harvick threw in a desperate lunge down the inside. Sadly, he could not make it stick, so he switched to Plan B and tried to spin Busch out.

Speaking about the incident, Kyle Busch said, “The fact of the matter was that he ran me down for the last five laps of the race! I was shocked because I was pushing as hard as I can go because I needed to stay ahead and not let him get to me.”

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Kyle Busch explains his side of the situation

According to the #18 driver, he tried to stick to the bottom of the track. In fact, he ran a really tight line into the curb and it slowed him down.

Owing to this, he was put right in Harvick’s clutches on the last lap. Heading into Turn 2, Kevin Harvick got so close that they were almost nose-to-tail.

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Busch knew that if he picked the bottom lane, Harvick would simply root him out of the way and push him off. With that in mind, he went a little high and caught the #4 driver off guard. Kyle Busch then suggested that Harvick must have realized that he was not giving up the place.

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He was on my bumper a little bit off of Turn 2 (on the last lap). If I go in on the bottom, he was just gonna root me out of the way and push me on the stuff. So I kind of went in high into Turn 3, and I think I shocked him,” Busch said.

Trying to guess his mind-set, he suggested that the SHR driver’s next instinct was to hit him. Admittedly, it was too late, and he probably did not think the move through.

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Somehow, Kyle Busch kept the car running and kept the position, much to his surprise. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick walked away with nothing to write home about.

Kevin Harvick Explains Desperate Attempt to Pass Kyle Busch in a Bid to Qualify for the NASCAR Championship Race

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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