Kyle Busch walks away from major practice crash at Iowa Speedway

During Group A practice at Iowa Speedway for the NASCAR Cup Series, two-time NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Busch was looking strong in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. He was sitting second on the overall speed carts, but disaster struck with just under nine minutes left in the session.

Busch entered the weekend on the back of a 79-race winless streak, but Busch will have to come from the rear of the field on Sunday. Entering Turn 1, the rear of the car started to step out. As Busch tried to react, the car overcorrected and shot directly into the outside wall. The nose and right front sustained severe damage in the impact. He was on his 17th lap of practice at the time of the crash.

Busch quickly climbed from the car and walked away from the incident without injury. He was checked and released from the infield care center, where Busch explained what went wrong.

From 80% trust to zero

“(We were) just continuing to make changes to make improvements to the rear grip and getting the rear of the car more secure everywhere around the corner,” said Busch. “Literally, anywhere that I would push a little bit harder (and) I would feel rear chatter. I felt really good about the changes that we made. Came out of Turn 4 really hot and heavy, and on it, and went off into Turn 1 with too much trust. Chattered the right rear, and then overcorrected and smacked the fence. Not really sure how to find more trust, or when you feel something good in one corner, it’s not there in the next.”

The team will now have to unload the backup car, skipping qualifying as they get it race-ready for Sunday.

“It’s tough for the guys,” said Busch, who spoke about what comes next for the team. “Hate it for the guys. Everybody at RCR — especially the #8 crew here. I’m sure we’ll rely on some of the #3 guys [teammate Austin Dillon] to get the backup car prepared overnight. Obviously, we had decent speed. Just trying to work on up to it and consistently just get better and better with laps. That’ll be about the same thing we got to do tomorrow. I was probably built up to about 75%, 80% trust, and now I’m back to zero.”