Kyle Busch came up three points short of progressing from the Round of 8 group at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, just missing out on a Championship 4 spot. Even though his performance wasn’t what he had wanted for, he finished a determined second, barely behind Xfinity 500 winner Alex Bowman.

When asked if his removal was difficult to accept, he was frank.

“Oh, we ran like dog—- last week and this week. So we had a Hail Mary opportunity there at the end and we were trying to make something out of nothing,” Busch said. “Great effort. We did everything we could all day long. We never stopped working on it, but we have missed it way too much lately, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Busch started the final stage on the back foot after receiving a pit-road speeding penalty, but his courage and determination put him in position to not only finish in the top five, but to compete for the Cup Series championship in next Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM). He finished.472 seconds behind Bowman at the checkered flag and was eliminated along with Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Logano.

But it wasn’t over for Busch, who had his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota turned around in Turn 1 after a hard race with old rival Keselowski became full-contact on the final lap.

Busch’s description was blunt once again.

“Well, he drills my ass coming out of (Turn) 4 for no reason,” Busch said. “Where was he going? What was he going to do — spin me out? He was trying to do a Harvick is what he was trying to do. For what? Second place? To do what? He wasn’t going to transfer through with that. … So stupid. I don’t understand these guys. I should beat the (expletive) out of him right now is what I should do, but that doesn’t do me any good either.”

Asked why not, Busch said:  “I’ve already had to pay enough fines in my lifetime. I’m sure I’ll get another one.”

Keselowski offered his side, saying, “I don’t know what he was thinking. I don’t know if he’s mad at himself, mad at me. I don’t sweat that.”

However, Busch said that any goodwill earned during their reasonably clean battles for position early in the race had disappeared once they were within sight of the finish line.

“I raced Brad fantastic all day,” Busch said. “I mean, I held him up more than any other driver out there the entire race. I was on the outside, my car was better on the outside today, and he couldn’t make it by me and he ran me relatively clean. Once he got enough alongside of me, he kind of washed out and moved me up a little bit, which is fine — I get it. Then coming to the checkered, just that dumb (expletive). That right there is going to make me race him differently, even though he had all the coins in the bucket the whole day, just emptied it out right there at the end.”

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