The Bluegreen Vacations Duel Race 2 was a literal “clash of champions.” Former Cup Series champions Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski got into a wreck that collected defending champion Ryan Blaney and #24 driver William Byron. While multi-car crashes are a common incidence at the Daytona International Speedway, what ensues after them is a prolonged blame game among drivers. Following a similar pattern, some of the blame has been put on Busch, but speaking in a post-race interview, he unveiled his participation in it while some of it was deflected toward Brad Keselowski and the #6 crew.

In the 46th lap, Ryan Blaney and William Byron occupied the 4th and 5th positions when Keselowski’s #6 Ford clipped the right rear of Kyle Busch’s car. This pushed Busch into Byron, who subsequently spun into the #12 Ford. The violent turn of events triggered the red flag as a caution period of nine minutes followed and Michael McDowell started in P1 on the restart.

Kyle Busch is upset by his first choice car being ruined in the crash

This is the second consecutive year that Busch has crashed out of the Daytona Duel. Having suffered a similar fate in 2023, he’d have wished for a better lead-up to his 19th Daytona 500 attempt. Having not won the race in his impressive career, a multi-car wreck is the last thing he’d have wanted. When asked about Brad Keselowski’s hand in initiating the crash, Kyle Busch called it the ebb and flow of hard racing.

“He couldn’t see through me so I cannot blame him, but it’s just the nature of what all this stuff is,” claimed Busch. Revealing what went down in the 46th lap as a compact formation between the cars broke, Busch took his fair share of blame for not being able to maneuver his way around the huge wreck. “The net result at the end of our day was that the big run that the #12 got got the #24 shoved out of line,” added Busch.

“He lost momentum. I’m trying to lift off the gas and not hit the #24 and I’m getting a little bit of a bump from behind from the #6 not really seeing through me what’s going on. I hit the #24 which I was not supposed to and spun out, which caused the wreck.“

On being asked about the impact of TJ Majors conveying the grid traffic to Keselowski, Kyle Busch added, “Better spotter communication, I guess maybe on Brad’s guy’s part. I don’t know what the code is but it got to be quick.”

The wreck caused Ryan Blaney’s #12 car to erupt in flames as it slid across the asphalt while Busch’s #8 Chevrolet caught a small fire underneath the hood that died out soon. Disclosing the extent of the damage on his car, the 2-time Cup Series champion said, “I’m not racing that one anymore. I mean, it’s not a good thing. We come down here to prep everything for the car that we had to use that car in the Daytona 500, but you just roll out your backup, try to do it again.”

Having struggled with finding stability last season, Kyle Busch and crew chief Randall Burnett felt a need to improvise on their superspeedway package. While much thought went into that aspect in the off-season, according to Busch, not much has changed since 2023.

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Frustration was the theme for Busch’s outing at Daytona

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NASCAR races at Daytona often test a driver and his pit crew’s handling of the car in dirty air. Traffic doesn’t just unsettle the car by lowering the downforce but also the efficiency of the car, resulting in lesser power output. Kyle Busch tried a different strategy to tackle that on Thursday. Revealing his dissatisfaction with the #8’s package, he said, “I mean, I started off with being frustrated at the package and everybody driving around 70 percent throughout saving fuel the whole time.”

“Keeping the fuel bunched up, we were trying to be upfront. Guys that will stay on the gas will get up front and then I’ll get to the bottom to lift out of the gas and shove that real back. So, we were back in traffic and I was trying to make a 3-wide move, but there was nowhere to go in the middle.”

Had the #8 car found an opening in the middle lane, it would have given Kyle Busch a chance to head closer to William Byron who was in P4. However, that thought process was disrupted by Brad Keselowski’s bump in the 46th lap.

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Having started 4th in the Duel, Kyle Busch would have liked a better starting position on Sunday. However, as fate has it, there will be a gigantic gap between Busch and the front row.