With 14 laps to go, one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time ran in sixth. He had his teammate right behind him. Where he wanted to be. He was being pulled by the inside line’s draft, and for a moment, a fragile thought whispered into the sport’s consciousness:

Could Kyle do it?

Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion searching for his first Daytona 500 win, held steady. His trip to Victory Lane stood intact after years of cursing the “80%-luck-20%-skill” racing this place enables. The driver of the No. 8 Chevy’s dream of conquering the Great American Race on his 20th try — just like another Richard Childress Racing legend — moved closer and closer.

Then, with 14 laps to go, any hopes for a trip to Victory Lane was traded for a frustratingly familiar trip to the Daytona International Speedway infield care center: his car ripped up, his answers eerily similar to questions he’s been asked year after year, standing in the same infield grass.

“I don’t know,” Busch said Sunday night outside the facility when asked if he saw what got him spinning into the wall and ultimately out of the race. “I need to see a replay.”

The replay wasn’t all that complex. Joey Logano — a longtime Busch rival — got a run on the outside line and tried to make a move in the middle. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the man who most recently punched Busch in the jaw at a NASCAR race, tried to block Logano. Logano didn’t relent. Neither did Stenhouse. It ended in Logano shoving Busch below the yellow line and Stenhouse getting loose and taking care of the rest. A caution flag flew.

But it wasn’t Logano or Stenhouse or the race that drew Busch’s immediate ire.

It instead was a NASCAR rule that prevented him from getting back out there.

“Got beat by NASCAR procedures again, just not being able to get back out on the racetrack,” Busch said.

He continued: “I had four flat tires out there. And we have these air jack systems in the car, mandatory by NASCAR, and the guy carries around an empty air bottle to plug up to the car. So couldn’t plug it up so I could make my own return back to pit road.”

Busch then told NASCAR that he just needed a push to the pits — that once he was there, his team would replace his four tires and, assuming he was on the lead lap, he could go back and contend. For what it’s worth, that idea isn’t all that wild: Tyler Reddick finished second after making up 20-plus positions in the final five laps.

“I said I just wanted a push, so they decided for three laps how to hook it up, to tow us back in,” Busch continued. “They towed us in to a work area, where our guys reviewed the car and didn’t see anything massively wrong. All the wheels were pointed in the right direction. We put four new tires on it to go back out to basically see what the next process was going to be for us.

“And then was told that if we needed to work on it and repair it, you need to go back to that place (the work area in the Cup garage), but if you go back to that place, they park you.”

Busch was referring to a recent change in the NASCAR rulebook that stipulated that any vehicle unable to be driven to pit road because of crash damage or flat tires must be towed to the garage, where the team can then work on it within a seven-minute time frame — the “DVP,” or “Damaged Vehicle Policy.” Busch said that if the team discovers the car needs further repairs on pit road, it’s done for the race, which is ultimately what happened.

He finished: “So what are we supposed to do to continue to work on it now that we’ve got four new tires on it and all the wheels are pointed in the right direction?”

It was a rhetorical question, frustratingly futile, much like the one above — Could Kyle do it? Logano said he wouldn’t do much differently on that block after he exited the care center (though, Jeff Gordon, volunteered that Logano was to blame). Even Busch admitted that when Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric were linked on the racetrack, there was no one catching them.

“It was going to be a tough road,” Busch said, to Victory Lane.

And for another year, he didn’t make it to the finish line.