Kyle Busch was in control of the race when the white flag flew at Daytona, but as space grew between him and pusher Christopher Bell, an opportunity arose from the outside lane. In the most unlikely of combinations, Parker Retzlaff, making just his second-ever NASCAR Cup Series start, pushed Burton ahead of the 2x NASCAR Cup Series champion. Burton threw some blocks and kept the car pointed straight as he beat the veteran driver (and his former boss) to the finish line.
Busch crossed the line just 0.047s behind Burton, collecting his best finish of the 2024 season.
"Just finished second," Busch said post-race. "It's all good. We were really, really, really lucky tonight to miss a few of the crashes. Just real proud of everybody, [crew chief] Randall [Burnett], all the guys at RCR, ECR did a great job, brought a fast car ... We'll take this. Got a good little stretch going with these last three weeks, and hope we can do what we need to do next week."
Looking back on the final lap, Busch doesn't think there was anything he could do outside of wrecking Burton, which is a line he did not cross.
"I haven't seen any of it. Just from what I recall, we got off of [Turn 2], somehow the bottom lane got discombobulated, broke all of our momentum. The top lane just rolled. Once they got in front, with as little as energy as there was with the lack of cars that there were, it was hard to make anything happen from turn four to start/finish. Besides just flat-out wrecking him, there was nothing else I could do."
Busch remains winless through the first 25 races of the season. Since joining the Cup Series full-time in 2005, he has never gone an entire season without winning at least one race. He has 11 races to keep the streak alive, but only one race to win his way into the 2024 playoffs.
The Southern 500 is one of NASCAR's crown jewel events and a race Busch has won before.
"We ran good there the first time I ran with these guys early last year. But early this year, we struggled mightily. We'll just have to go with hopefully a really good package that works, get our job done."
Busch's decision to keep things clean, a far cry from his teammate Austin Dillon's controversial win at Richmond, was greatly appreciated by the driver of the No. 21 Ford.
"It means a lot," said Burton after winning the race. "Yeah, I mean, for a guy like Kyle Busch, who has been through what he’s been through this year, kind of similar story where his expectations were higher than where their year has been, this was a chance for them to turn that around the way we did tonight, too. He could have very easily wrecked me. I wasn’t in his shoes, but I was pretty sideways.
"Kyle has done a lot for a lot of young kids’ careers. So yeah, for him to race me the right way when I’m the guy that is low in points, if he wrecked me I don’t think people would really look twice about it, right? It’s just the way these races have gotten. He did things the right way. I think that means a lot for him as a person. It’s cool for sure."
