Busch, in his first season driving the No. 8 Chevrolet at Richard Childress Racing, followed up on his victory a week ago at Gateway with a runner-up finish in Sunday’s race at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
Busch hasn’t finished worse than seventh in his last four races and is tied for the series lead in wins (three).
“I mean, I don’t know if I want an off week. Let’s go, right? We’re rolling right now,” Busch said after the race. “It would be a good break for everybody to kind of regroup and refocus and set in for the last 18 in a row.
“All in all, just real proud of the guys and the communication and the way they’re able to go to work and kind of work through some of our issues and try to improve on what I need to be able to feel in a race car to be able to put out finishes like that.
“If we can keep doing those things, we’ll be a force (for the championship).”
While Martin Truex Jr. dominated much of Sunday’s race (leading a race-high 51 laps), Busch and his team did get him in position to challenge for the lead late in the race through pit strategy.
Busch stayed on the track to claim the Stage 2 win while Truex – who had pit earlier – finally ran him down and reclaimed the lead with 41 of 110 laps remaining.
A late-race caution for Denny Hamlin’s wreck sent most of the lead-lap cars down pit road – including both Truex and Busch – but three cars remained on the track.
Truex and Busch on newer tires had little trouble getting around them to move out front, where Busch tried desperately – but to no avail – to catch Truex for the lead in the final laps.
“I wish we had a little bit more. I tried really hard at the end to at least try to keep Martin honest,” Busch said. “Felt like I could beat him a little bit on a lap, then I would mess up.
“He would beat me by a little bit more on the next lap. We were just kind of trading a little bit there. He was able to pull away there late.
“Nice to come out here with a P2 after a win last week.”
