Kyle Busch didn’t think twice about shoving aside teammate Denny Hamlin to win Martinsville playoff race

One person stood between Kyle Busch and a third straight berth in NASCAR’s championship final Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. It just so happened to be Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, who was leading the First Data 500 with one lap remaining.

This left Busch with a choice: He could either settle for a second-place finish, which would go a long way to securing a spot in the four-driver championship finale but still leave him vulnerable to being eliminated in the semifinals of the Cup Series playoffs. Or, he could lay his front bumper to Hamlin and move him up out of the groove, allowing Busch to drive thru for the win.

Busch never even hesitated. Too much was at stake. He nudged Hamlin aside to take the win, assuring himself that he will be racing for the championship Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“Life ain’t fair,” Busch said. “What’s fair and what’s not is irrelevant. When it comes down to the end of the race and you see the white flag waving and the door crack open a little, you have to put your foot in it. That was our opportunity to punch our ticket to be able to go to Homestead.”

Busch said his actions and justification afterward isn’t a mentality he employs at all times, but dependent on the circumstances. And on Sunday, with the significance of what a win represented, he had to lookout for his own self interests.

“It's a tough balance sometimes,” Busch said. “You've got to know who you're racing, when you're racing, what you're racing for. All those sorts of things go into play. I think we all kind of understand what the situation was, which is obviously win and you go to Homestead.”

A lap before Busch banged into him, Hamlin had demonstrated a similar win-at-all-costs mindset when he intentionally crashed Chase Elliott with two regulation laps remaining. The two were jousting for the lead and Hamlin slammed into the rear of Elliott’s car entering Turn 3, causing the No. 24 Chevrolet to spin into the outside wall.

That incident allowed Busch to get into position and score a win he likely wouldn’t have otherwise. And afterward, as Hamlin and Elliott had a brief verbal altercation where Elliott expressed his displeasure, Busch was celebrating in victory lane.

“It was just chaos kind of there at the end and just what all has happening with those restarts, so you just kind of had to stay on your toes and try to keep your nose clean, kind of try to stay out of trouble,” Busch said. “… The seas kind of kept parting for us and kept opening up for us to be able to get up closer to the front, and we were able to take advantage of that.”