The rain was falling but that didn’t stop the Darlington Raceway from shooting off the post race fireworks display following the conclusion of Wednesday night’s Toyota 500. This was the first Wednesday night NASCAR Cup Series race since 1984. But, the fireworks were actually going off in pit road too.

Alan Gustafson was irate at his former driver in Kyle Busch that he crew chiefed over a decade ago. Busch, said that he made a mistake on Lap 200 when he got into the left rear of Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet and hooked him on the front stretch of the 1.366-mile South Carolina race track.

Elliott, was running in second with Busch in third. Busch, was trying to get in behind Elliott’s car at the start/finish line but he misjudged it and got into Elliott instead.

“There’s no question I know I made a mistake and just misjudged the gap,” Busch said after the race. “When we were racing there with the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and the 9 (Chase Elliott) had a run on them, I knew he was there. I knew I had to get in line as quick as I could and in doing so, I watched him and his momentum that was going by me and I tried to look up in the mirror and see where (Kevin) Harvick was to get in and I just midjudged it. I made a mistake and clipped the 9 there and spun him into the wall. I hate it for him and his guys. I’ve got too many friends over there on that team to do that on purpose. I’ve raced Chase since he was a kid and didn’t have any issues with him before. It was just a bad mistake on my part and I’ll have to deal with it later on.”

Busch, also acknowledged that this likely isn’t the end of it and he would have to deal with whatever consequences are going to come from Elliott.

“They’re upset. They’re mad,” Busch continued. “It’s not just going to fix it and go and have ice cream tomorrow. Obviously they’re going to have to dwell on it and the repercussions of it I’m sure I’m going to have later on down the road.”

We may have two races at Charlotte over the next seven days, but following that is two of the next three races being at Bristol and Martinsville. If Elliott wants payback, he has an opportunity.

Gustafson, said that he takes Busch for his word that he didn’t mean it, but he’s still upset that their cars was the one in position to win in the end and Busch took it away from them.

“Ultimately he made a mistake and I get it. I don’t think he intentionally wrecked us. But, you just get tired of coming out on the wrong end of those deals too often. I certainly feel like we were in position to win that race. Denny (Hamlin) was on old tires and we were getting ready to clear Kyle (Busch) obviously. So, you get tired of getting run over like that and his explanation I’m sure is accurate but it doesn’t change at all. These guys worked their tails off on his NAPA Chevy and they deserved to win this race.”

He’s not wrong. Denny Hamlin didn’t have any fresh tires left, so when everyone else hit pit road on Lap 196, he stayed out. His tires were well older than Elliott’s and with Elliott at the time in second, he just needed a lap or two and he would have gotten by him. With the rain falling under that caution, barring an unforeseen disaster, Elliott would have won.