Toyota haunted by Kyle Busch’s engine failing twice across three playoff races that cost him ‘a shot at his third championship’


Toyota haunted by Kyle Busch’s engine failing twice across three playoff races that cost him ‘a shot at his third championship’

Kyle Busch and TRD president David Wilson

Kyle Busch was eliminated from the 2022 Cup playoff after the Bristol DNF (Did Not Finish). The veteran failed to secure front row finishes in the Round of 16, costing him a title shot. Busch isn’t solely to blame for the losses as he suffered DNF in Darlington and Bristol due to engine failures.

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The Joe Gibbs Racing No:18 Camry suffered unfortunate engine failure twice in the first rounds of playoff races. His teammate Martin Truex Jr. also experienced similar situations in Darlington. Kyle Busch later came out calling the engine failures unacceptable. His wife Samantha Busch also took Twitter to share similar remorse.

Now Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson has come forward to address the situation. The manufacturer has apologized to the driver and the team for the unfortunate incident. He has acknowledged that Toyota’s failure cost Kyle Busch his third championship.

Also read: “We’re starting to get flooded with a little bit too much,” Denny Hamlin sounds off on the number of Road Courses on the NASCAR schedule

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Find out what David Wilson said

Kyle Busch
Toyota Racing development president David Wilson

David Wilson acknowledged that they cost Kyle Busch his third championship. He added that even if a Toyota car wins the 2022 championship with Bell or Hamlin he will be still haunted by engine failures. He pointed out that two engine failures in three weeks is unacceptable and unheard of.

We cost Kyle Busch a shot at his third championship…Whether we’re so fortunate enough to possibly win a championship with either Christopher or Denny later this year, I’m still going to be haunted by what happened, not just in Bristol, but Darlington as well. Two engine failures across three weeks are unheard of. It’s unacceptable,” David Wilson said.

David Wilson went on to say that there exists an instability with their vavale train. He added that he can’t do anything about the situation they are in. David Wilson acknowledged that he has already apologized to Kyle Busch and Joe Gibbs and taken responsibility for the failures.

We have some sort of instability in our valve train and it seems to be triggered by us running into NASCAR’s mandated rev limiter, interestingly enough. There’s nothing I can do. I’ve apologized to Kyle. I’ve apologized to (Joe) Gibbs. This is on us and hated that we let them down,” David Wilson added.

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Who do you think cost Kyle Busch his title shot?

Also read: “Go back to the Gen 6,” NASCAR Twitter reacts to Denny Hamlin’s call for NextGen 2.0

Also read: “I wasn’t close enough to do anything with him,” Chase Elliott on missing out on the Bristol win to  Chris Buescher