June 2, 2008
By Ron Felix
CIA Stock Photo
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12.7 Second Pit Stop Helps Win The Race
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It was the third attempt for Kyle Busch at Dover International Speedway this weekend and this time he closed the deal. Starting third in all three series, Craftsman Trucks, Nationwide and Sprint Cup, Busch ran into trouble on Friday and Saturday but literally dominated the Best Buy 400 on Sunday. Just as he had tamed Darlington three weeks ago, he tamed the monster at Dover.
"We didn’t have the car to beat today," said Busch of his car's performance. "Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle were better than us but we made it on the long run as good as they did and we knew if we could get track position and get in front of them that we would be a little bit better. The guys on pit road had a phenomenal day. They got us out front and kept us out front and that’s what won it for us here today.”
It was Busch's fourth win this year and the eighth victory in 127 career races. Busch has won ten races this season, in all three top series. Busch extended his lead in the NASCAR point standings to 142 over Jeff Burton and 271 over Dale Earnhardt Jr. Busch was so proficient that there were only six cars left on the lead lap at the end of the race. Busch has led a total of 1,876 laps across the three NASCAR series in 2008 -- 786 in NSCS, 786 laps in NNS and 304 laps in NCTS.
"You can drive them hard for the first three or four laps, then you have to start backing off, start slowing down, slowing up your entry, slowing down the center, just kind of moseying around the corner, trying to make the thing stick in one particular groove," Busch continued. "I've found something that's worked for me here recently in the past few weeks. I found it at Darlington. I won there. Then I finished third at Lowe's. Then we won here again today. You know, we're gaining on the car as well, too. But I think a lot of it is a little bit of driver. You got to stay calm when you can. You got to get going when the time's right and when you can get riled up.”
Carl Edwards had the car to beat early in the Dover race but in the end, had nothing for Busch and finished second nearly six seconds off the lead. Edwards also finished second on Saturday in the Nationwide race.
“That darned 18 car got us again," Edwards said. "I felt like we were at least as strong as anyone and probably the best car for a lot of the race. On that last run we got off pit road just a little bit slow and then the car was just not quite as fast for the first half of that last run as it needed to be. So it’s very frustrating to finish second with that good of a race car, but we battled all day and that’s what we ended up with.”
Edwards' teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth placed third and fourth respectively.
“We were pretty good," said Biffle. "I don’t know what happened but the engine started missing there early in the race and the battery was going dead, so we switched batteries and it came back on line. But we had to shut everything off and we were just a little bit too tight all day. We couldn’t get it to rotate in the center of the corner and that’s probably what our biggest thing was – we just needed to turn a little bit more in the middle. The lap traffic was really, really tough today. We just had a really tough time with these cars. You get about 20 car lengths behind a car and you can’t pass them even though you’re faster than them. It was a real tough day for us.”
“It was good," said Kenseth. "We started off and were pretty fast on the long run and then we kind of got off to the loose side and we tightened it up and then the track tightened up on us and we just got too tight in the center. It was a great run for us. We’re definitely making progress. We’re moving the right way here lately and have been getting some good runs put together, so it feels good to have the DeWalt car at least up in the top five.”
Jeff Gordon was fifth followed by Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton, Dave Blaney and Jamie McMurray to round out the top ten.
The race was barely 19 laps into the contest when Elliott Sadler came down on David Gilliland and spun coming off turn two. Stewart plowed into Sadler and all heck broke loose with other driver joining the wreckage. All-in-all eleven drivers had severe damage. Elliott Sadler, Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Bill Elliott, Paul Menard, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Scott Riggs and Kasey Kahne were involved. All the drivers were checked at the infield medical center and released.
Only Sadler and Hamlin were unable to return to action.
Sam Hornish Jr. scored an 18th-place finish in today’s race at Dover. He grabbed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fifth time this season. Unofficially Hornish Jr. and Regan Smith are tied for the lead in the Raybestos Rookie standings (127-127).
“It’s a long day for sure. We should have been a lot better than where we ended up there," Hornish said. "I screwed up and sped out of pit lane and that kind of hurt us for sure. I think we would have had a top-15 car so maybe it hurt us like three spots, maybe a little bit more. Just real happy with how everything went. The Penske Truck Rental guys did a great job for me in the pits. I feel like these are the finishes that we should have been having all year and we had tire problems and just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I feel like we’re starting to turn the corner a little bit so hopefully we’ll keep it going.”
Rookie Michael McDowell led today’s race once for one lap, the first time he has led in eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts. Other Raybestos Rookies that have led a lap this season: Patrick Carpentier (four), Dario Franchitti (1), and Regan Smith (1).
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the June 8th Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway. The race begins at 12:30 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 12:00 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
For full final race results...
(Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Sprint Cup drivers points...
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