June 30, 2008
By Ron Felix
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Kurt Busch's Winning Pit Stop
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Even Kurt Busch couldn't believe his good fortune, he had just taken the lead in the Lenox Tools 400 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when his fellow competitors started peeling off to get gas. Busch had pitted for fuel with 84 laps to go and he was still going to be a few laps short, unless there was a caution. Busch, Casey Mears, Michael Waltrip, Greg Biffle and a few others pitted on lap 217.
All those drivers were stretching the fuel and hearing that rain was on the way. They took the gamble and chose not to pit on the final two cautions and with 20 laps to go, the race was red-flagged for light rain. NASCAR pulled the trigger quickly ending the race. Kurt Busch was barely out of his car when he was informed that he was the winner of the race with him in the lead. It was the first win for Busch this year and the 18th victory of his 273 race career.
"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," Busch said. "We were on more of a fuel strategy. We might not have been the fastest car but the record books will show that we won."
Michael Waltrip finished in the second spot, a badly needed good points day.
“I had a vision that this could happen," said Waltrip. "You look at the way racing goes these days, it's just different than it used to be. You get track position and you can look like a hero. Getting track position is very difficult. So I felt confident when three or four of them stayed out behind me under the caution that I would have a chance to win the race. So if it were surreal, that went away as soon as I looked up and said, ‘I could win this thing.’ That's a great feeling.
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“I'm going to slip out here with my 170 points, 150 grand, start putting some patches on a sinking ship, what has felt like a sinking ship, for a year or so," Waltrip continued. "If you want to know disappointment, I was coming to the white at Talladega with Jimmie Johnson glued to me running 20 miles an hour faster than the field driving by him. We were going to win that race, no doubt, and it blew up coming to get the white. Nobody ever knew about that. That was a game changer for our team. Hopefully today can be a game changer for it as well."
J.J. Yeley was also in need of a good finish and he brought his Toyota home in third place.
We needed this finish really, really badly. I'm glad it's in the books and we'll look forward to Daytona,” Yeley said. "There were so many guys that just went and got fuel that weren’t worried about someone sneaking in on tires. I really feel that between myself and Mikey (Waltrip), we deserved these finishes. It's not like we were given it because of the rain.”
Martin Truex Jr. was fourth followed by Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson, Casey Mears, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte to round out the top ten.
One has to feel for Tony Stewart -- he led the most laps (132) but finished a disappointing 13th because of the way the rain caution fell.
"It’s just been the oddest year I’ve ever seen for this race team. It’s disappointing for all of us on the Home Depot team," said Stewart from the cockpit of his rain-soaked Home Depot Toyota. "I guarantee you there’s a crew chief down there -- that they’re hiding sharp objects from, right now. He (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) gave me the best car I’ve had since Charlotte. It’s just frustrating. There’s not anybody that’s going to tell you any different than that. There’s nothing you can do. If we knew what to do and if there was something we could do about it, we’d change it. We will just keep plugging away each week and we’ll get it turned around.
“I don’t know how to put it into words right now. Everybody’s worked hard. It’s not for a lack of effort by anybody on this Home Depot racing team by any means. It’s just one of those years where everything that can go wrong goes wrong. We’ve had years where we couldn’t do anything wrong, too. It’s part of racing. The good thing is no matter what the outcome is today we get to do it again in six more days so we just do what we can.”
Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. collided when Earnhardt attempted to pit with 30 laps to go. McMurray didn't see Earnhardt and knocked him into the air, the impact was so great. McMurray wasn't aware what had happened, he never saw Earnhardt.
“I’m not real sure. I guess the 88 was pitting, but typically when a guy pits the spotter will say something, either theirs to yours or what not," said McMurray. "I was just trying to get underneath the 10 car. I’d been running on the apron all day and I was really focused on looking at the outside and seeing where he was and I never saw the 88. I never saw the 88 until I hit him. Typically when guys pit like that the spotters all get together and wave their hands or what not and the spotter never said anything and I was looking at the 10 car on the outside. I was on the apron because that’s where I’d been running all day. I didn’t see Junior until I hit him.”
McMurray took blame for the accident.
"Certainly it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have run into the back of him. I didn’t see the 88 until I hit him. I still didn’t know who I had hit until I looked afterwards.”
The accident also collected the No. 6 of David Ragan.
“I just saw the 88 and 26 wrecking," Ragan said. "I saw the 26 and thought he was gonna hit the wall and thought I could go between them. I probably slowed down a little too much."
Earnhardt Jr. didn't stick around for comment.
With 21 laps to go and under caution, Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya got into a scrape. Montoya turned Busch around but Busch spun and hit Monyoya. Both saw the incident differently, but Montoya admitted to intentionally wrecking Busch.
"I don't appreciate it when people race me like that," Montoya said "There's a fine line and he crossed it. I hit him the same way he hit me. He hit me under caution, he hit me under green and I retaliated. Did I go too far in retaliating? Yeah.
"I think they are giving me a penalty and it's OK -- for what I did. The only thing I told them was that they are always saying be very careful not to do anything under caution," Montoya continued. "The only reason I did that was that I was just defending myself."
"I don't know what his beef is," Busch said. "Honestly, I have no idea (what happened). I got a run on him with 50 laps to go and got to his outside and he kept coming up a little bit. I didn't turn down into him and I barely touched his quarter-panel and got by him. We came to that caution flag and he thought he beat me to the flag. I was just trying to get around (Dario Franchitti) who was in front of us, touched (Montoya) on the door and he turned left and spun me out."
Montoya was assessed a two-lap penalty by NASCAR for rough driving and was credited with a 32nd-place finish while Busch finished 25th. NASCAR said that there would be no further penalties.
Kyle Busch maintained the lead in the unofficial NSCS championship point standings and holds a 64-point advantage over second-place Jeff Burton.
The Sprint Cup Series moves to Daytona International Speedway next Saturday night, June 5th, 2008, for the Coke Zero 400. The race is scheduled to start at 8:00 PM / Eastern Time on TNT. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
For full final race results...
(Insider Racing News)
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