Kyle Busch talks about the impact the 2017 rules changes have had to his setups
Kyle Busch has definitely noticed some changes in the way his car handles from 2016 to 2017.
Busch was a non-factor last Sunday at Atlanta, though he came back from being laps down during the race to finish on the lead lap in 16th. He said Friday he was looking for some more turning ability in the front of his car because of NASCAR’s new technical rules. Cup Series cars have less downforce this season due to a smaller rear spoiler and smaller splitter on the front of the cars.
“For me in the 18 car, though, we’re just lacking the ability to have the amount of front turn in the race car that I’m looking for because of this lack of downforce,” Busch said. “They took a lot of front downforce away from the car, and apparently I rely heavily on that being able to cut through the corners. We’ve got to get a little bit better aero platform going, balance wise, aero balance, as well, through the corners and figuring out how to do all of that through our setups in the race car.”
Busch became the first driver to win a stage in Cup Series history when he won the first stage in the Daytona 500. Since then, however, he hasn’t scored any additional points via stages.
“That doesn’t bode well for our chances for being able to go through the whole Chase riding on points,” Busch said. “We’re not scoring them, so we need to be able to get back to where we need to in order to score those points and have that opportunity to excel in the Chase, and more importantly, get back to Victory Lane, too.”
But here’s where we remind you — and Busch — that the season is just two races old. There are still 24 races and 48 stages to score points before the playoffs. We think Busch will be just fine, even if his start has been fairly lackluster. Soon after winning that first stage at Daytona, Busch had a tire go flat and crashed. He finished 38th.
Busch starts Sunday’s race at Las Vegas in ninth.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
