Kyle Busch heading into Darlington with full confidence despite Daytona heartbreak

Despite the Daytona disappointment, Kyle Busch portrayed confidence heading into the regular season finale at the Darlington Raceway. The Richard Childress Racing driver was half-lap away from securing the playoff berth but Harrison Burton snuck the win by 0.047 seconds.

Busch started 11th and led eight laps before nearing his maiden win of the season. He dominated the final overtime restart from the inside line with Burton's #21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford second on the outside. However, as the Coke Zero Sugar 400 race neared its end, Burton lunged ahead of the RCR driver after capitalizing on the help from Parker Retzlaff, who was running his second Cup race.

That said, the WBR driver has locked his place in the playoffs while Busch's on the verge of missing the Round of 16 for the first time since debuting full-time in 2005.

Nonetheless, with his recent string of consecutive top-5s at Michigan and Daytona, the #8 Chevy driver is confident for the upcoming Darlington race. The two-time Cup Series champion posted a video on his X (formerly Twitter) account, exhibiting the heartbreaking final lap at the 2.5-mile track and citing his readiness for the 367-lapper regular-season finale.

"Our heads are up into Darlington. Lot of momentum for this 🎱 team rn.📈."

Kyle Busch has no option but to ace the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington if he wants to see himself competing for the third Cup Series title.

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"Completely killed the bottom lane": Kyle Busch on how Christopher Bell's squirrely move contributed to robbing him of the race win

The final overtime restart witnessed the pack closely stacked behind the frontrunners to benefit from the aerodynamics of drafting. While Burton's momentum surged after Retzlaff's draft, Busch relied on his own pace.

The reason was his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Christopher Bell. The #20 Toyota driver "squirreled" behind Kyle Busch's #8 Chevy's rear bumper, and couldn't create a linear formation required for successful drafting. Thus, the RCR driver couldn't capitalize on the energy radiating from behind the pack and was helpless as the WBR driver claimed his first and WBR's 100th win.

"You’re relying on everything happening behind you and unfortunately, the 20, something happened off of (Turn) two where he got squirreled up and wasn’t to my rear bumper, and then he was below the yellow line, and I don’t know what was going on," Busch said via NASCAR.

"Completely killed the bottom lane and the outside just rolled and once we got to Turn 4, there just wasn’t enough energy with enough cars from behind me. I was relying on my own draft to try to pass the 21 and that happens so slow. Besides wrecking him (Burton), nothing to do in that situation," the runner-up added.

During the 2024 season's second race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch lost the battle by a minuscule margin of 0.007 seconds as Daniel Suarez snapped the win, followed by Ryan Blaney in second.