April 28, 2008
By Ron Felix
CIA Stock Photo
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Kyle Busch spent most of the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway one lap down because of missing his pit stall on the first green-flag pit stop, but he got the lap back late in the race and drove from dead last to the front of the field to win his 6th career Sprint Cup race. It was Busch's second victory this year and the first ever at Talladega. Busch has seven victories in 2008, spread over three series, two in Sprint Cup, three in the Nationwide Series and two in the Craftsman Truck Series. Busch also gave Toyota it's third victory in 2008.
"It was a good win for us today," said Busch. "We lost a lap there but fought back. We got the Lucky Dog pass and got the lap back. (Juan Pablo) Montoya was my savior today. he pushed me all the way back to the front.
"“I'd like to say I'm smarter than I look but that's certainly not the case. You know today was just due to having a great car, Mark (Cronquist) and all those guys at the shop did an awesome job building a great Toyota engine today and in order to power us up through there through the field when we were getting bumped and banged all over the place; but getting a lap down, yeah, that was like typical Talladega there, and I didn't wreck today, so I am ultimately happy about that. Greatly appreciative that I was able to win today because it's just been a struggle here at this place for certainly a couple years, and I don't think I've ever finished one here yet without having some sort of damage. Today we still had damage but it wasn't enough to keep us from victory lane.”
As usual at Talladega it was a wild finish. Eleven cars piled up on the final lap and it was difficult sifting through who finished where.
Juan Montoya, who had pushed Kyle Busch from the rear of the field to the front, finished a strong second.
“I thought it was a pretty good race. Our Wrigley’s Dodge was pretty good all day," Montoya said. "It was pretty hard because so many people were checking down the straights pretty hard. I fell back to 20th place with about 15 laps to go and made a couple of moves that took me all the way to the front. I really helped Kyle (Busch). When you could get into someone’s bumper, you could push him all the way around the lap and make up a bunch a ground. It was good and I got up to second and then dropped to fifth and got up to second again. It was pretty cool and interesting race.
“I've loved restrictor plate racing since the first time I came to Talladega, I loved it," Montoya continued. "The bumping, it's tough; because of the good result today, you can finish 20th in a heartbeat for 30th. It's pretty exciting because it takes a lot of strategy and you always have to learn to pick the right lane, and when you pick the lane, you make sure you get enough shock to make sure the line moves, and the problem is there's people that you bump when they brake because they don't want to -- and they break and the cars behind had enough momentum that you start sucking up and it's pretty hard.”
Denny Hamlin had a strong car and could pull himself and anyone else that he wanted to go with him, back to the front of the field at will. Hamlin finished third on the day, only because he ran out of time near the end of the race. David Ragan ran up front all day and finished in the fourth position followed by Brian Vickers, Travis Kvapil, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to round out the top ten.
Regan Smith finished 19th and was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race. Tony Stewart led the most laps (61) but several accidents left the former Sprint Cup Champion in the 38th spot.
The race featured 52 lead changes among 20 different drivers.
There were eight cautions for a total of 23 laps. A total of 21 cars were involved in accidents or spun out on the track. The Sprint Cup Series moves to Richmond International Raceway next Saturday night.. May 3rd, 2008, for the Crown Royal 400. The race is scheduled to start at 7:00 PM / Eastern Time on Fox.
For full final race results...
(Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Nextel Cup drivers points...
(Insider Racing News)
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