I just want to take a moment to apologize to Kyle Busch. As with every Chase prediction I’ve made (not to mention high draft picks on my fantasy football teams), the Young jinx appears very much alive this year. Busch now joins Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin as predicted Chase winners who flopped.

Busch even set a record for quickest descent, needing just two races to go from top to bottom. But is he really done? With a 210-point deficit and with 11 other drivers to pass, history says yes. Jimmie Johnson made the biggest Chase comeback by going from 146 out to win it in 2006.

However, Johnson did that in the last five races, meaning Busch has three races to put himself in a similar — or better — position. Johnson did it by winning races and getting a little help from other drivers

One person who believes Busch isn’t done yet is his crew chief, Steve Addington, who’s seen this team win eight races this year.

“You feel like you’re out of the championship,” Addington said when asked if his driver was down. “If you look at Jimmie Johnson in ’06, he came back and won races and got back up there and won a championship. So it can happen for us.

“If we just go out and continue to do what we’ve done all year long, if those (leaders) stumble any, we can be right back in the thing,” Addington said. “We’re down, but we’re not dead yet.”

Though Busch’s attitude after Dover was one of a driver who was ready to throw in the towel, he’s had a different attitude leading up to today’s race. He sees the next few races as a chance to make history, and he insists with the pressure off now he can just worry about winning races.

“This team has never quit all year, and we’re not going to start now,” Busch said. “There’s no pressure, really. Every week, when we unload at the track, we’ll be looking for nothing else but a win.

“There’s really no sense in looking at the points right now. Lots of things happen between now and Homestead.”

Including the rebuilding of one writer’s reputation.

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