● Kyle Busch finished 14th in Sunday afternoon’s Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona after being caught up in a lap-55 accident.
● Busch started the 75-lap exhibition race in second but dropped to 11th on lap two as he pulled out to attempt a pass on the inside line.
● After a red flag for rain on lap nine, the race returned to green with Busch in seventh, a position he held until the mandatory caution at lap 25.
● The M&M’S Chocolate Bar driver made his only pit stop of the race on lap 25 and restarted seventh when the race returned to green on lap 32.
● Busch moved up through the field to fourth on lap 50, as heavier rain approached the track.
● As the field headed down the backstretch on lap 55 with Busch running third, the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Paul Menard made contact in front of him. Busch almost snuck through, but his No. 18 was clipped by Johnson’s car, sending him spinning into the outside SAFER Barrier in turn three.
● The damage was too severe to continue, and at lap 59 the race was called, 16 laps short of the scheduled distance, because of rain.
Kyle Busch, Driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Chocolate Bar Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:
“We were just running along on the top there. It looked like the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) thought he had a run and took it to the bottom of the 21 (Paul Menard). I don’t know how they made contact or what happened, but it ended up getting the 21 kind of squirreled out, and he shot back across the track. I was trying to squeeze through that hole up against the fence and just wasn’t able to make it. We crunched up a pretty good M&M’S Chocolate Bar Toyota Camry. It’s unfortunate for all of our guys. We come down here every year working as hard as we can to build speed in our cars, and all we do is go out there and destroy them. That’s unfortunate and frustrating at the same time. We’ll be back here next week and try and chase after a 500 win.”
JGR Finish:
● Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 19 Toyota, finished 15th.
● Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Toyota, finished 17th.
● Erik Jones, driver of the No. 20 Toyota, finished 20th.
Next Up: The Gander RV Duel – twin 150-mile races that will set the rest of the Daytona 500 field –will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14, with live coverage on FS1. Speedweeks at Daytona then culminates with the Daytona 500 at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, with live coverage provided by FOX.
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