On the overtime restart last Monday at Michigan International Speedway, Kurt Busch was saddled with an inferior position — as the third-place car, stuck on the inside of the second row, better known as no-man’s land on the 2-mile track.



History tells us the third-place position on Michigan restarts typically dooms its occupants. Leading into this particular attempt, the third-place car successfully defended position just five times in the three most recent races for a combined retention rate of 22 percent. On just one of those five attempts did a car actually complete a pass. The odds weren’t in Busch’s favor, problematic for the 2004 champ because this restart was to decide the race.



Busch bucked history’s probability, because of course he did. Working against the grain has proven to be his function within NASCAR.



The one-position gain landed him a second-place finish in the rain-delayed contest, tying his best result in a...