May 31, 2010
By Ron Felix
Steve Addington, crew chief for Kurt Busch, has really lifted the No. 2 Miller Lite team to new heights.
Addington engineered the win last week in the NASCAR All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and on Sunday night, he guided Busch to his second points paying victory this season in the Coca-Cola 600.
“That last caution fell our way," Addington said. "It came when we were able to run the same lap times, but couldn’t catch him. It was the same at the end there, he could run the same lap times, but couldn’t catch Kurt. To come here and win the All-Star race and the 600, that’s awesome.”
Busch led a total of 251 laps. It was Busch's first win at Charlotte and his 22nd series victory in 341 career races.
CIA Stock Photos
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Kurt Busch Does Backward Lap
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"What I really enjoy about Steve is the confidence he gives me in the car and the adjustments that he makes," Busch explained. "When he comes into the sport, you're going to drive the wheels off anything and you can overstep the line and wreck some cars. As you get more experience, you line up with an experienced crew chief, there's some times when I'll just go, “Hey, make a change.” I'll drive the wheels off it, whatever you give me.
"I feel like he's helped me pick up my game because I have to have a fresher outlook on different setups. Like he says, getting back to the basics, going with some old school things, that's what we've done these last couple weeks. He got that vibe off of the poor test we had here at Charlotte based off my comments.
"It's just a dream weekend that we've had starting last Saturday night," Busch continued. "It even started on Friday night with us getting the pole with that rain out. We almost dug out a clean sweep with the pole, just 400 short. All of it's due to the teamwork. When you sit back and think about it -- going to Victory Lane, when it starts to sink in, the first person I think about is Roger Penske. When I came to the program, we won at Michigan early on. That was special. We won the Daytona 500 together. Ryan Newman did, I pushed him to try to help do it. I always feel like I got a little bit of that win. To win the 600 and All-Star back to back, this is something that will be front and center in Roger's NASCAR trophy case."
It was the first time Penske Racing has won at Charlotte.
Jamie McMurray, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, who earlier in the day had won the Indianapolis 500 with Dario Franchitti, was closing on Busch in the final laps but settled for second.
“I’m still excited from where I was last year and not knowing what was going to happen to get to be here right now with Bass Pro Shops and McDonald’s being a part of our team," said McMurray. "I’m still really happy. I think we had the best car tonight. Certainly on the long runs, we had the best car toward the end and that is all you can ask for. You can’t win every time you have a fast car and the No. 2 bunch put themselves in position and they were able to win.”
Kyle Busch was third and Mark Martin battled his way to fourth place.
Defending race winner, David Reutimann brought his Toyota home in fifth followed by Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, pole sitter Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth to round out the top ten.
Last year's champion, Jimmie Johnson, had several encounters with the wall, resulting in a 37th place finish, 36 laps down.
"That first one was just a racing deal," said Johnson. "I got in the fence and did some damage and we were trying to recover from that and I was trying to run from the leader, trying to be respectful of the leader, and I had the leader on my tail coming through. We made some big adjustments to the car and basically adjusted it to free it up there and I just spun out off of (Turn) 2."
Kevin Harvick finished 11th and still holds onto a slim points lead over Kyle Busch by 29 and 117 over third place Matt Kenseth.
"It was a good night, we hit a piece of debris and from that point on, we were extremely tight and we just fought it," Harvick stated, pointing out pit problems. "I had to pit a couple of times, had a loose wheel and still came out 11th. Our car was really good until we hit that piece of debris. We just took what we get tonight and that is what you have to do when things happen. It was a good night for us."
On lap 362, Tony Stewart's crewman, Kevin McDowell was injured during the pit stop and was taken on a golf cart to the infield care center. No update on him at this time.
When the race concluded, Kyle Busch was taking a scolding from Jeff Burton, who's tire was cut-down from contact with Busch's car. It cost Burton any chance of a decent finish and Burton thought Busch was at fault.
"It is just really frustrating to race that hard -- we had the car like it needed to be there at the end," said an irate Burton. "Todd (Berrier, crew chief) and the guys did a great job. We didn’t run like we needed to early, but those guys kept working and working and got the car really good. The last restart, Kyle (Busch) made it three-wide on the restart, because the guys on the bottom didn’t have (new) tires and he was trying to make something happen, which I don't have a problem with.
"So he ran into me and cut my left-rear tire, then I have a problem with it. He's real aggressive. That's cool. But when he starts affecting me with his aggressiveness, I just will not put up with it. I've been around here long enough. I just will not tolerate it.
“I can’t blame him for that, but the least he can do is stay off of me, he cut the left rear tire. I like racing with Kyle, I really do. I enjoy it, but when he gets over aggressive and I pay the price for it, I won’t tolerate it. I’m just not going to put up with it. I don’t mind racing with him. I don’t mind him being aggressive, but I’m not going to be the victim of his aggressiveness, I’m just not going to put with it.
“First he said he didn’t hit me. Then he said he got put there, then he said he had to go. He didn’t mean to do it, ok. He was trying to defend himself and what he was saying wasn’t making sense. That’s ok, he was upset because I was yelling at him. He didn’t mean to do it, but he’s real aggressive and I don’t mind that but like I said when it affects me, then I have a problem.”
Busch didn't see it the same way that Burton did and seemed to be shocked that he was being accused of a lack of respect.
He (Jeff Burton) said I didn’t race him very nicely," said Busch. "He said I ran into him and I don’t know what I could have done to have made that work without touching. His teammate, the 33 (Clint Bowyer) made me three-wide getting into (turn) one. I held it as tight as I could on the 33 trying to stay off the 31 (Jeff Burton). I guess all that nice respect stuff that he talked about earlier this week is out the window. I guess that’s how I race everybody."
There were eight caution flags for a total of 34 laps. Also there were 34 lead changes among 17 different drivers. The Sprint Cup Series moves to Pocono Raceway next Sunday -- June 6th, 2010 -- for the Gillette Fusion 500.
Pocono will be the 14th race in the Chase for the Championship.
Tony Stewart was the winner at Pocono in 2009.
The race will also be broadcast live on MRN Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
Pocono will be the first telecast for TNT this season.
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