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Busch escapes with win
Darlington race is a battle of attrition
AP Photo
Kyle Busch and his team were all smiles after winning his third race of the season.
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Published: May 11, 2008
DARLINGTON, S.C.
Kyle Busch seems almost unstoppable in the NASCAR world. And he certainly played a good Indiana Jones role last night, escaping from certain disaster time and again all night long.
Busch, with a car painted up to promote Harrison Ford's new thriller, provided plenty of thrills of his own in the Dodge Challenger 500, man-handling his battered Toyota to win by more than three seconds over Carl Edwards.
It wasn't a bit pretty, as races go; in fact it was ragged, with drivers bouncing off the walls all night. But Busch made it a winning night, with another amazing performance, this one even better than that stunning victory at Atlanta back in March.
And the car Busch rolled into Darlington Raceway's Victory Lane was so battered and bruised that it's a wonder it could even roll.
Jeff Gordon, surprised at finishing third, said, "I can't tell you how many times Kyle tried to give this race away by hitting the wall. I can't tell you how many times he hit the wall. It certainly wasn't aerodynamics that won this one, because his car was all beat up.
"He is an incredibly talented driver.
"And I heard more noise for Kyle here than I've ever heard. I remember when I came in this sport, Dale Sr. always got the most noise from the crowd too."
So Busch can be called NASCAR's new Iron Man. He takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.
Busch, who just turned 23, stretched his Sprint Cup tour points lead.
Every lap, all 367, seemed like a wreck just waiting to happen, though miraculously there were only eight cautions.
Yes, Busch may indeed be a "wild thing" out on the track, but there is no doubting his talents -- this was his eighth NASCAR victory of the season, his third on the Cup tour, along with three Nationwide wins and two Truck wins.
Busch was exhausted, like most drivers: "This is pretty awesome. Even with the fresh asphalt, this place was tough.
"We're going to go through a lot of tools this week fixing this thing.
"But this is pretty cool.
"However the car just doesn't turn, just doesn't want to turn. And there is only one lane around this place."
Edwards started 36th but rallied to second. "It's good, I'm OK with it," Edwards said. "The fastest car won. But I wanted to beat them so badly.
"Our pit crew came back. We were 43rd on the sheet the first day of practice, and I was down in the dumps. I was terrible. I thought this race was going to be a disaster.
"But to come back to finish second, well, the fastest car won.
"They ought to open this track to everybody in South Carolina and let them drive around here all day every day and wear this asphalt out. That's what it needs."
Gordon moved up to 10th in the standings but he's still winless and he was not happy: "We're definitely making big strides.
"Making good calls was key. All I tried to do was keep it off the walls. It was pretty much what I expected for new asphalt and new tires.
"I'm happy we got a top five, a third, but I'm frustrated by how far off we are. We've got some work to do."
Dale Earnhardt Jr., last weekend's controversial battler with Busch, finished fourth. "We had a real good car most of the week, though when the race started we weren't quite like we had been. We were off a little bit.
"And you just could not pass. This was the worst I've ever seen it for not being able to pass."
Busch had lug-nut problems throughout the race, and he was even penalized a lap for having one missing after a stop. But he rallied back into contention on a night when most of the field opted to play it very, very conservatively.
It was one of the strangest races ever at Darlington Raceway, and that goes a ways, considering this place has been around since 1950. But then running 200 mph at a track originally designed for cars maxed out at 135 mph, well, you'd expect some weirdness.
The race was only seconds old when the first incident took Tony Stewart and Elliott Sadler out of contention. Sadler got into the corner under Stewart and slid up into him. This is one of the few tracks on the NASCAR tour at which Stewart has never won. Sadler blamed himself: "I just made a huge mistake. I was trying to give him room but slipped. I don't blame him if he's mad at me."
Greg Biffle was strong early, but a flurry of mechanic issues sidelined him. And Biffle was angry over those problems.
Drivers slapped the walls and each other throughout the four-hour race, in what was a night of frustration all the way around.
Denny Hamlin, who dominated Richmond a week ago only to lose with a flat tire just 20 laps from the finish, ran strong too, until Martin Truex Jr. and Hamlin, battling for seventh, tangled when Truex ran into Hamlin with 65 laps to go in the 367-lapper.
At that point, despite the bruising action, 21 cars were still on the lead lap.
Biffle started from the pole and led a lot early but loose wheels cost him. And Biffle was not happy with his team. "It is really frustrating, but I've just become accustomed to it … because week after week it's something: something breaks, something falls off," Biffle said after going out 39th.
"We've got wheels loose. We had wheels loose twice.
"I know everybody is trying their hardest, the guys are digging their hearts out. But the fact of the matter is in this sport, in this day and age, you cannot leave wheels loose. Not at this place, this fast. Somebody is going to get hurt….
"And there was another mechanical issue -- it seems like it's in the carburetor to me, because it doesn't want to run.
"It's just real frustrating. I give it 110 percent as a driver all the time ... and you want your equipment to last, and be able to win these races. They're so hard to win these days."
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@ws
journal.com
.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( dicello ) on May 11, 2008 at 7:45 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Mike,
Thanks for the story !!!! Without your article readers would not have known the results!!! WSJ did not print the results stats or the race for the CUP points.... I guess this is par for the coarse since last week they printed the same article in the Sunday Biz section twice !!!!
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