Kyle Busch, Corey LaJoie tangle in late multi-car crash at Pocono

A jam-up on a restart with 40 laps remaining caused a major crash in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway, dealing Kyle Busch another jolt to his playoff quest.

Corey LaJoie’s No. 7 Chevrolet made contact with Busch’s No. 8 Chevy as the field fanned out and then tried to funnel into Turn 1 in the final stage of the Great American Getaway 400. The nudge sent Busch’s No. 8 sliding through the infield grass and back up into traffic, collecting the cars of AJ Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

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Busch, mired in the longest winless skid of his Cup Series career, sank further in his quest for a berth in the Cup Series Playoffs with a 32nd-place finish. He dropped to the rear of the field for Sunday’s start after his Richard Childress Racing crew discovered an oil leak on the grid, and Busch ended up with his fifth DNF in the last seven races.

Busch took the high road by thanking sponsors when asked about the contact with LaJoie. When pressed, Busch offered: “That‘s just racing these days. It‘s what happens.”

LaJoie, who drove on to a 19th-place finish, said post-race that he would not have reacted differently if placed in the same situation again.

“No, you’ve got to take the run,” said LaJoie, who was hampered by a Lap 96 pit-road speeding penalty. “You know, I don’t want to … I’m not the guy that wants to wreck anybody, but I think if Kyle blocks only once, then we both go around the corner and live to fight another day. But that second block that he thought he had it covered and he didn’t was what did him in and did a couple other guys in. But man, it is really hard. It is so freakin’ hard to run 19th. I mean, it’s all I got, tongue hanging out, so you have to be perfect.”

Busch was 98 points behind the provisional playoff elimination line entering Sunday’s 400-miler. After Sunday, he sits unofficially 102 points back, with just five regular-season races remaining.

MORE: Updated Cup Series standings

LaJoie said there was nothing intentional about the contact between the two.

“I think Kyle I have been racing around each other long enough, we’re not going to smash into each other on purpose,” LaJoie said. “We both are guys that feel like we belong, certainly him, but I mean, I’m not going to say sorry. I’m not sorry about it, because that was the thing. If the shoe was on the other foot, the exact same thing would’ve happened, and I think he would probably say that.”

Preece (30th), Burton (31st) and Stenhouse (33rd) were all sidelined.

“It’s always erratic. That’s what we do now,” Burton said after a check at the infield care center. “It’s just part of how we race. These cars are so close and track position is so important, you just have to kind of race like an ass, which is hard. It’s hard to do and not overstep your bounds. That’s just the nature of this beast. The best guys at it are really smooth and consistent while being at that level.”