Another Busch win has Gibbs team feeling upbeat

TALLADEGA, Ala.

Kyle Busch once again upstaged the man that Rick Hendrick hired to replace him -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. --to win Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Speedway, for so long a doomsday track for Busch.

Busch's victory, over surprising Juan Pablo Montoya and Toyota teammate Denny Hamlin at NASCAR's biggest track certainly boosted the spirits of car owners Joe and J.D. Gibbs.

Busch, however, downplayed his one-upmanship over Earnhardt, despite Busch's seven NASCAR wins already this spring, to Earnhardt's zero.

"I left there on some pretty good terms with all the guys," Busch said Sunday evening. "I've got a lot of great friends over there in that organization, with the guys on the team and guys in resources. Even Rick came over to the car just before the race and wished me good luck.

"So there's no hard feelings there, no shoving it in their face saying ‘I'm better than you,' or anything like that."

Still, Busch has made the point in the season's first two months, with two Sprint Cup wins, three Nationwide wins and two Trucks wins. His 23rd birthday party in a few days ought to be quite a shindig.

Sunday's race was surprising in several respects: Carl Edwards, a three-time Cup winner this year, was a victim several times of right-front tires problems; Tony Stewart, while trying to rally from a cut tire, got tangled up in a big crash that took him and Earnhardt out, after the two had dominated much of the race; and Montoya was tough, again.

Indeed, it was a race for the aggressive, and the most aggressive driver in the race might well have been Hamlin.

Busch and Hamlin didn't see eye-to-eye on some moves early in the race, but Busch didn't care to discuss the issues.

"I was a little upset when Denny -- we were running 1-2-3, and Tony was leading, I was second, and Denny was third -- and the bump-drafting got a little aggressive and he knocked me out of the way and went on to get behind Tony, and I had to fall back a few spots," Busch said."Luckily I only fell back to seventh or eighth.

"I'm in a good spot, where I want to be, driving this car … and what Denny does or Tony does sometimes out there during the race, sometimes you're not going to be happy with the moves they make. But you go on with it, you salvage it, and guess what: I won, and that's all that matters."

The best race of the season?

"For sure it's the best race we've had," Hamlin said. "Daytona was really good too. This race had the same complexion like the last three races here -- single-file, everyone taking their time, didn't want to do anything crazy until the end.

"I thought it was a great race, I think this package is really right where it needs to be for a superspeedway, so I really commend NASCAR for all the adjustments they've made to this car for superspeedway racing."

Busch, on the other hand, said he wants to see the replays before he pours out too many adjectives.

"I'll have to watch it," Busch said. "From where I was sitting, there were some times I was running in a three-car draft, and I was bored as hell.

"There were times it got pretty impatient, and guys were making bold moves and bump-drafting, and it got a little crazy. But it all worked out."

One surprising thing was that drivers generally managed to avoid crashing, despite all the hard hits.

The rear wing on the new cars appears to help drivers avoid spinning out.

Busch, during an early series of pit stops, got trapped in the outside line on pit road and couldn't cut across into his pit. So he had to go back around the track and try again, and he wound up a lap down.

"At that point, where we missed pit road, coming down, I was mad as hell," Busch said. "But we straightened it up. These races are so long; I looked at the scoreboard and saw there were 100 laps to go, and I figure there's got to be another caution."

Busch played the draft well.

"I was running fourth or fifth late, and got a bump-draft, and a huge line, and got into Jamie McMurray there," he said. "And I don't know what happened with that scenario, but we were able to straighten up and keep going.

Steve Addington, Busch's new crew chief, said that Busch has amazed him this spring.

"I'm really proud of him being patient when we got the lap down," Addington said. "If we could just hang in there, we had a good enough car…."

For Addington, this season so far has been a dream, after some nightmarish years:.

"You look at the last three years, they haven't been really good," he said. "I'm just thankful to be with an organization that knew what was going on."

Sunday was a wildly emotional day all the way around for car owner Joe Gibbs.

"When you have a team like this, with three cars, the emotions are all over the place," Gibbs said. "First, you're upset because Kyle misses pit road, and he winds up a lap down. Then you have Tony leading the race and all of a sudden Tony cuts a tire. And you've got Denny real strong and all of a sudden he gets shuffled all over the place.

"Midrace you figure there's no way Kyle is going to have a chance to win it."

■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.