Not so fast, driver. Crew chief Steve Addington isn't ready to wave the checkered flag on a title just yet.
"We're down, but we're not dead yet," Addington insisted. "There's still a long ways to go and anything can happen."
After two bad races to start the Chase, the team that won the "regular-season" points title now finds itself dead last in the Chase standings. Busch is in 12th place and trails leader Carl Edwards by 210 points.
Addington admits its a huge hole to climb out of, and even if Busch is skeptical about a possible rebound, the crew chief plans to take the team to Kansas Speedway this weekend looking for the strong run that can jump-start a comeback.
"We've got to just go out and win races," he said. "We can't do anything other than that -- just try to make up as many points as we can. There's no other way to approach it. We don't have anything to lose. So lets keep the guys pumped up to go out and do what they've done all season."
The remaining schedule works to their advantage: NASCAR has visited six of the remaining eight tracks this season, and Busch notched a pair of wins, four top-5s and five top-10s in those events.
History shows that Busch can mathematically still win the title if he doesn't have another bad finish. In 2006, Jimmie Johnson rallied from 165 points down with seven races left to claim his first title. And, in Chase history, a driver has gained 100 points on the series leader in a single race four different times.
Addington doesn't want to worry about statistics. He instead wants to rally his crew and focus on the future. The first step is preventing mechanical failures like the two that ended Busch's runs at New Hampshire and Dover.
Addington said the Dover motor failure was peculiar -- it also plagued teammate Tony Stewart's engine, but his lasted the entire race -- but has been resolved.
At New Hampshire, Busch's car had been terrible all weekend and the team spent a hectic pre-race making numerous changes. Just minutes into the race, a bolt became loose on the sway bar that caused the suspension part to fail -- an error Addington is confident won't happen again.
"The guy who does all my front end stuff, I'd put him up against anybody in this Cup garage. He's thorough and pays attention to everything," Addington said. "What happened? Why did it come loose? We'll probably never know. But that guy right there... he promised me, he looked me dead in the eye and said he put a wrench on it and thought it was tight. I believe him."
He still has to convince Busch not to give up just yet, but when the field goes green on Sunday, Addington doesn't think it will be an issue.
"Right after stuff happens, you know how Kyle is, he's frustrated," Addington said. "When he has time to sit down and think about it, and calms down a little bit, he knows how bad we wanted it and how bad he wanted it. It takes a day or two, but then he's fine."
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Addington's Q&A with Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer:
Q: What has it been like to work with Kyle this year?
SA: Coming into it, I heard all the stuff about him. But he's a competitor. When he sits down and is with the guys, having a good time, it's been awesome. When he's pushing you at the race track to make his car better, that's something a guy dreams of -- to have a driver who wants to be better. People go "But he beats you up on the radio!' Well, I want to win this thing, too. So if you take that personally, you are in the wrong business. I love the kid and all my guys love him.
Q: So he's not the nightmare everyone thinks he is?
SA: I don't think so. He's been a breath of fresh air for this race team.
Q: What's Kyle like on a good day?
SA: Oh, laughing, cutting up, saying off the wall stuff on the radio, talking to (spotter, Jeff) Dickerson on the radio about getting In-N-Out burgers after the race. When he's in a good mood and having a good time, it don't get any better.
Q: What's he like on a bad day?
SA: You leave him alone, let him be by himself and try to work through it. You can try to pick him up a little bit, but he's one of those guys who, he has his personality and you have to take it with a grain of salt. He don't say much to people when he's not in a good mood. But he comes around.
Q: What's been the highlight of this season?
SA: There's been a lot. Winning the (July) Daytona race was cool. And the Chicago race, because he had given up and was on the radio saying "How many races does Jimmie Johnson give away? None. How many races does Kyle Busch give away? A lot.' And then he just got up on the steering wheel and wanted it, so from what Dickerson said on the radio to him and Kyle coming back to win that race, that was pretty awesome. But Daytona, speedway races, you put a car out there and it's driver and watching him work is just amazing. Plus, it was my birthday, so that was a cool race, too.
Q: The lowlight of the season?
SA: Loudon. That's a place that we've struggled and we made some changes and I think we went in the right direction and never got a chance to see, and it was the start of the Chase. We had talked about having a good race to start it, so to have that happen 15 laps into the race, that was devastating.
Q: Kyle said a driver and crew chief are like a husband and wife. So, is Kyle like a spouse to you?
SA: I guess in the sense that he tells you what he wants, and then he's gone and you don't hear from him for a long time, that's pretty good. And then when you want to talk to him about something, he's busy. We text at night before the race a lot, because he won't talk on the phone, but he'll text you all night. You've got to have a good relationship, and I think we show each other a lot of respect.
Q: The 18 team struggled for several years before this season. What's it been like to watch your guys experience success?
SA: We knew we've got good equipment, we knew we we're putting a good product out there, and we knew we were missing one piece of the puzzle. But there were guys questioning it when he came in, wondering if our stuff was good enough because he'd been driving really good (Hendrick Motorsports) cars. Some guys were worried and really nervous about it. I told them "Don't worry about it, if they aren't good enough, we'll go to work.' The Atlanta test (last October) was the best thing that ever happened to this race team because he ran eight laps and said "Load it,' and that right there, it was like a ton of bricks off everyone's shoulders.
Q: Is this team ready to win a championship?
SA: I've asked myself that a lot, because they've never been in this position. So you ask yourself if you are really prepared for it. I think with what they proved they can do all year long, I think they are as ready as anybody. They never showed me anything any different. I don't know if there's pressure in the back of their minds, because they've never showed it. They are as ready as anybody.
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