May 4, 2010
By Allen Madding
By this time in the season, last year, Kyle Busch had won three events in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. This year we have seen a dominant performance by Jimmie Johnson and the Hendrick No. 48 Lowe's team with everyone else fighting for second place. The late Dale Earnhardt once noted that second place was first loser, and that seems to have been the first position available for all the other 42 drivers -- besides Johnson.
Kyle Busch has made it clear that he was not content with anything short of winning. When the Gibb’s Racing No. 18 M&M’s Toyota unloaded at Richmond, it quickly became apparent that Busch and the No. 18 team were focused on letting the whole world know they were there. Busch set some of the fastest laps in practice and then sat on the pole with a lap of 127.077 mph.
Once the race began, Busch put the No. 18 Toyota out front and set sail. At one point, he had all but eight cars a lap down. Kevin Harvick’s wife DeLana noted Busch’s dominance and his competitors’ frustration on Twitter, “good lord, the entire field might be a lap down...” In fact, for the first 150 laps, no one appeared to have anything for Busch and began setting their sights on second place.
All told, Busch led 226 of the 400 laps in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Heath Calhoun 400 Saturday night. But in the closing laps, his Gibb’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota seemed to lose some of its back breaking forward bite that allowed him to get in the gas -- coming up out of the corner and rocket down the short front and back stretch of the D-shaped three-quarter mile Richmond race track. When the caution waved, it allowed much of the field the option to stay out and take a wave around.
When the race went back to green, Busch’s fading performance allowed Jeff Gordon to take the lead of the race. Busch had led 221 laps when Gordon assumed the lead.
At that point, Jeff Gordon seemed to separate himself from the rest of the 43 car field and was disappearing into the Virginia night. But three caution periods allowed the Gibb’s team to continue to adjust on the No. 18 Toyota to try to give Busch back that spark he had at the drop of the green flag.
On the final restart of the night, Busch wrestled the lead away from Gordon in Turns 3 and 4 and began putting space between his No. 18 Toyota and the Hendrick No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet. Busch went on to win -- leading the final five laps of the event. Gordon would finish second in a heated battle with Kevin Harvick, who would finish third.
Busch’s dominance in the first 221 laps of the event makes one wonder if he has rediscovered the magic he enjoyed over the last two seasons leading hundreds of laps and scoring numerous wins in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Additionally, with Busch’s dominant performance and Jeff Gordon leading 144 laps in the event, one has to wonder if Jimmie Johnson’s dominant streak has been broken or if he has lost the lucky horseshoe that Kevin Harvick thought he had lodged in his lower G.I. Johnson finished tenth without leading a single lap.
Busch’s win ends a 21-race losing streak, marking his longest dry spell since joining Gibbs Racing.
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