Kyle Busch was in a familiar spot Monday in the STP 500 when he came home second at Martinsville Speedway.
Busch has been inside the top-five at the Virginia short track for the last six straight races. His performance behind race winner Clint Bower was Busch’s third second-place finish in the last four races of 2018.
But despite those impressive stats, Busch is still frustrated he was denied a trip to Victory Lane.
“I mean, we take solace, sure, but you know, ultimately we’re here to win each and every week,” Busch said. “I know everybody is, but we’ve been that close each and every week, so we’re right there, we’re knocking on the door.
“We’re trying. I wouldn’t say it’s one particular thing that we can pinpoint, we’ve just been beat by somebody kind of hitting it a little bit more than we have. And we’ve been the closest thing to everybody each and every week.”
Busch, who was able to take the lead in the series standings with the finish, did his best to run Bowyer down in the closing laps of Monday’s race.
He’ll have a week off before trying to improve one position when the series resumes at Texas Motor Speedway April 8th.
“He was able to kind of edge out there through the early laps of firing off each and every time, first 10, 15, and kind of get that gap, and then he’d kind of just hold that,” Busch explained. “He was probably saving just as much as I was trying to save to make sure he had something to go at the end.
“He was fast enough there at the end to and had enough gap that he was able to hold us off. You know, just close. We’re right there, just not being able to knock it through.”
