June 23, 2008
By Ron Felix
CIA Stock Photo
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Busch Gets Fifth Season Win
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Kyle Busch picked up his fifth Sprint Cup victory on Sunday in the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. Busch started 30th on the grid
and worked his way to the front, taking the lead on lap 69, using a combination of pit strategy, luck and talent to earn his ninth career
win and his fifth victory this year.
It was the first win for Busch in Sprint Cup competition on a road course in seven tries.
Busch gave Toyota and Joe Gibbs racing it's sixth victory in the 2008 season. Busch has won a total of eleven races this year, in all three
series, the Sprint Cup, The Nationwide and the Craftsman Truck Series.
Busch extended his lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standing to 109 over Jeff Burton and 149 markers over Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Busch is earning a reputation of being able to win on any type of track, his other victories were at Atlanta, Darlington, Talladega and
Dover.
“We got a slow start. The car just did not take off with restarts. It was way, way too loose and that hurt us," Busch said. "Then on long
runs we were really good. Once we burned some fuel, we had a good, strong car. Unfortunately, we were mired in traffic all day. Then we
missed our pit window and a lot of the guys pitted right when the caution came out -- the lap of or the lap before. That put us back in
even further traffic. Staying out of trouble there at the end of the race and surviving those cautions was able to have us leave here with
a solid day.”
As luck would have it, Scott Pruett wrecked on lap 105 of 110, setting up a green-white-checkers situation. Busch held off a hungry David
Gilliland and a beleaguered, but lucky Jeff Gordon.
Gordon, who started fifth, and his Steve Letarte-led Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team rebounded from falling deep in the running order
early in the race to notch the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion's 10th top-five finish in 16 starts at the l.99-mile road
course. Gordon's run jumped him three places in the NSCS point standings to sixth with 16 of 36 races in the books.
"I am excited about getting a third place finish," said Gordon. "I think it shows what kind of a race team we have, we never give up and
fight hard. We like this place, we run good here. We weren't bad in here at the end, but we just really missed it in the beginning. I don't
know if it was air pressure or what it was, but we just lost all the grip. I couldn't drive it; I thought I was going to wreck. I thought I
wore the tires out but they said no, the wear was good. Those last two laps were two of the toughest laps I have ever made around a race
track. It was so slick out there and we were all dirt tracking it out there. It was fun and hairy at the same time."
Clint Bowyer finished in the fourth spot with Casey Mears in tow for fifth place. Bowyer felt like this race finish put his drive for the
"Chase" back on track.
"This was exactly what we needed. It is weird when you look at a road course and I am a guy that grew up on dirt track background as the
place for us to bounce back. This place has been good to us and it is good momentum going in to New Hampshire where we won our first race,
so we hope to continue that on," Bowyer said.
Rounding out the top ten were Juan Montoya, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.
It was a hard fought tenth place for Stewart. He was running fourth with five laps to go when Kevin Harvick had some wheel hop and lost
control of his Chevrolet, taking out Stewart, Jamie McMurray and Ron Fellows in the process. When reporter Marty Snider ask Stewart what
happened, Stewart replied, “I don't know. You can see it better than I could -- I'm inside the car.”
Kasey Kahne started the race on the pole but quickly faded. Kahne finished a disappointing 33rd on the day.
“It just wasn’t our day," said Kahne. "The car was extremely loose. I was pretty much spinning my tires everywhere on the track. It’s just
unfortunate given the fact that we started on the pole. I really can’t explain what happened today.”
Marcos Ambrose made his Sprint Cup debut on Sunday but suffered a heartbreaking finish. Ambrose was running as high as second when he and
Elliott Sadler made contact. The hit came just as Ambrose was engaging first gear under braking into Turn 7, breaking the gear and putting
a hole in the gearbox casing. With oil spewing from underneath his Ford, Ambrose’s day was done and he immediately parked his car in pit
lane.
“I was downchanging to first and I heard it go ‘crunch, crunch’. It put a hole in the gearbox casing and we were spraying oil everywhere.,"
Ambrose explained. "I didn’t want to oil the track and make a mess so I just came in and parked it. It was a really good run for us. It was
my first go at one of these Cup deals and we held our heads high. We didn’t get to run right to the end but they certainly knew we were
there and we showed what we’re capable of in Cup.
Michael McDowell scored a 21st-place finish in Sunday’s race, his best effort in 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts to claim the Raybestos
Rookie of the Race honors for the second time in the last three races and for the third time this season. For his efforts in today’s race,
McDowell won a unique trophy from Raybestos. The trophy features a mounted wine bottle with the Raybestos logo and a wine barrel.
Unofficially Sam Hornish Jr. leads the Raybestos Rookie standings by eight points (154-146) over Regan Smith. Smith was not entered in
today’s race at Infineon Raceway and rookie Dario Franchitti failed to qualify for the race.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the June 29th Lennox Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The race begins at 12:30 PM.
EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 12:00 PM. 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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