BF57
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| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:35 pm Post subject: Kyle Busch, Toyota Get Win In ATL! |
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Kyle Busch finally finished off what he'd been threatening to do all season, giving Toyota its first victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Busch, who won the Truck race here Friday night and was dominating Saturday's Nationwide Series race when he broke a shock mount and blew a tire, led more than half of the 325 laps en route to his fifth career Cup victory.
Busch is leading both the Truck and Cup points and is second in the Nationwide standings. His performance has been one of the early season's biggest stories, and on Sunday he cemented that with a victory.
It came in Toyota's 40th Cup start. Busch is the first driver to win a race in NASCAR’s top series in a car with a foreign nameplate since a victory by Al Keller at Linden, N.J., in 1954. Greg Biffle tried to run Busch down in the final laps, but it was Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart who moved up in the final two laps to finish second. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third with Biffle fourth and Jeff Gordon fifth.
Busch, at age 22, had never finished in the top 10 in a race at Atlanta before Sunday. Now, he’s the youngest driver to ever win at this 1.54-mile track, a record he took away from Gordon with this outcome. Earnhardt Jr. started on the outside of Row 1 and jumped quickly to the lead, enjoying a five-second advantage over his teammate Gordon by the end of Lap 13.
Busch moved into second as Gordon began to fall away and began closing in a little on the leader. Then, on Lap 38, debris in Turn 2 brought out the day’s first yellow.
Earnhardt Jr.’s crew kept him out front ahead of Busch and Carl Edwards, who’d won the previous two races, behind him. Busch kept working until, on Lap 60, he slid by and took the lead for the first time.
As Earnhardt Jr. had done, once Busch had the lead he began to pull away. Just before the field needed to come in for green-flag pit stops, another caution for debris on Lap 84 allowed everyone to come in under yellow.
Busch kept the lead through that stop and another for Kasey Kahne’s spin on Lap 114, and was still rolling even as Earnhardt Jr. began falling back a little bit. Busch then grazed the wall with his No. 18 Toyota on Lap 148 and four laps later Clint Bowyer went by Busch to take over the lead.
Bowyer pitted on Lap 168 amid a round of green-flag stops for the lead-lap cars. He had the lead once more once the cycle of stops concluded and proceeded to pull away himself, lapping Jimmie Johnson’s Chevrolet on Lap 187.
When debris in Turn 4 brought out the fourth yellow flag only 11 cars remained on the lead lap. But when the restart came on Lap 205, Busch got a big jump and sped by Bowyer to grab the lead once more. Edwards moved to second on Lap 210 and closed in on Busch’s rear bumper. He was almost there on Lap 221 when Elliott Sadler lost control of his Dodge in Turn 4. Edwards’ team had a bobble on its pit stop and he dropped to sixth for the restart on Lap 226 with Gordon up to second ahead of Bowyer and Harvick.
Sadler had trouble again in Turn 2 on Lap 232, hitting the wall to bring out another caution. Busch, Gordon and Bowyer stayed out with Edwards taking over fourth as the first car to have fresh tires.
That paid off by Lap 240 when Edwards went around Busch on the outside to take the lead. Edwards had checked out, but on Lap 262 Sadler’s Dodge spun out yet again to bring out another yellow.
Edwards’ crew kept him in front for the restart, but as soon as the race went back to green on Lap 268 smoke began coming from Edwards’ Ford. By Lap 275, the smoke was so bad NASCAR ordered the No. 99 to pit road, but he would have been coming anyway because the car’s engine was apparently letting go. Edwards’ bid for a third straight win was done.
On Lap 282, fluid on the track brought out the yellow flag. That allowed the leaders to come in for pit stops that would give them enough fuel to make it the rest of the way.
Busch got off pit road first with teammate Tony Stewart second and Greg Biffle third for the restart with 37 laps remaining.
Biffle passed Stewart for second on Lap 310, but was nearly 3 seconds back as the laps began to wind down, but Stewart came back with less than two laps left to move up into second place.
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