Kurt Busch Bangs Bristol
Kurt Busch bangs his way to a win at Bristol
By Greg Engle - Cup Scene Daily
No wonder this place sells out years in advance.
Bumping, banging, cursing, shoving, mangled sheet metal, bruised egos and near frozen concrete.
All in all a typical Bristol weekend.
The emotions ran high and low Sunday for the running of the Food City 500. Kurt Busch won the race to give the Busch Boys a weekend sweep since younger brother Kyle won Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race.
The high of the emotions came when Kurt Busch imitated making snow angels at the finish line after he brought home the famous blue deuce to score his fifth win here. A win that came, like three prior ones, with a controversial move at the end.
Busch took the lead from Matt Kenseth by bumping him just enough to disturb his car and drove underneath while Kenseth battled for control just five laps from the finish. Defending race winner Kevin Harvick also slipped past at the same time.
"An awesome short-track win for us," Busch said. "We've been close, we just haven't had the luck this year. Today we had to muscle past Kenseth, and he's a good friend of mine. ... He knows that this is short-track racing. He knows he slipped a little bit, he knows how hungry we were to win."
While acknowledging his friendship with Busch, Kenseth said he felt that his former teammate crossed the line.
"We are great friends, we always race good together," said Kenseth, who was slowed up by Dale Jarrett on the turn. "He just knocked me out of the way. I thought if he had a run under me and had me beat, that would have been OK.
"But I had a better car and could beat him off the corner," Kenseth continued. "But he just drove extra hard and knocked me out of the way. So I thought it was a little bit of a cheap shot, but I was holding everybody up. I couldn't get the 88 car (Jarrett) to get out of my way for whatever reason."
Busch cut a tire on lap 62 and dropped all the way back to 30th position before battling his way back for the victory.
The story of the first half of the race was the domination of Tony Stewart and the woes of Jimmie Johnson.
Stewart led 244 laps all in the first half of the race then battled to get a top fifteen finish, while Johnson scraped the wall on the first lap, then blew a tire shortly thereafter and spent the rest of the afternoon racing backwards.
In typical Bristol style, the field spent a great deal of the day playing bumper cars. There were at total of 18 caution flags, shy of the record of 20 and even a 15-minute red flag on lap 193 after 23 cars had been involved in seven crashes.
The cooling off period did nothing to temper emotions as later in the event Jeff Gordon booted Martin Truex Jr. who was a lap down but starting beside the leaders as he tried to get back on the lead lap.
Then, on lap 437 Truex appeared to be slowing Gordon's progress and the two made contact, which slowed them both down the backstretch. Tony Stewart, running just behind Gordon, ran into the back of Truex's Chevy, sending it slamming head-first into the inside wall.
Gordon said Truex shouldn't have slowed to let other lead-lap cars take spots in front of him, but still he seemed apologetic for spinning Truex.
"I did not want to get into Martin," Gordon said. "I know he wasn't happy with me; he shouldn't have been.
"I understand why he was upset . . . hopefully we'll talk and go on."
“We just had a rough day,” Truex commented after it was all over. “We were just about ready to get our lap back. We got our car running pretty decent. We ran a lap or two and we were the first car a lap down up there on the bottom. What did we run - two laps?
Then we just got spun out. It was unfortunate. I don't know what happened the second time. I guess we got spun out again.”
Stewart who longed strong during the first half faded at the end of the race and wound up 12th when the checkered flag waved.
"I am really disappointed," said Stewart. "We had an awesome car all day. I felt like I ran the most patient race I have ever run at Bristol. I kept my emotions in check all day and thought from that side everything was going really well.
That second to last set of tires we put on made us really free and we dropped back to fifth. Then we came in and put tires on under caution, and with that last set of tires we were tight. I couldn't turn it through the center (of the corner) at all. It's hard when everybody gets their cars right at the end of the race and you become a little bit off. It was hard to hold those guys back. So we just tried to race smart there and bring our car home in one piece."
The lowest of the emotions though can be best typified by the actions of two of the sport's mildest-mannered drivers both of whom decided to give the other a ‘friendly’ shove both on and off the track.
Former champion Matt Kenseth after recovering from Busch’s bump, ran into Jeff Gordon's rear bumper on the final lap, spinning four-time champion and costing Gordon a possible top-five finish.
Kenseth tried to apologize to Gordon after the race but was angrily shoved away by a helmet clad Gordon.
"Kenseth got shuffled out and he was holding guys up," said Gordon, who finished 21st. "We went down into (turn) 1 afterwards and he just wrecked me. I'm sure he didn't mean to do it and all that stuff. But I wasn't happy about it and I showed it to him after the race."
"I had to apologize to Jeff," Kenseth said. "He's right, it was my fault. He didn't bump me out of the way, and I did wreck him. But it was not intentional; I drove in too hard. I didn't do it on purpose, and I would be mad if I was him. I left my car to go over and apologize, which I should have waited a little bit longer."
Second place Harvick, who two days ago said he wanted "whip" Busch, raced him clean all day but continued his war of words afterward saying he was still upset with Busch: "He took a cheap shot at me last week on the racetrack (at Atlanta), and that's not something that goes over well.
"I meant exactly what I said the other day. I'm not going to take it with our cars on the track, but if I have to I'll take it out with him."
Busch finally took the time to respond to Harvick: "I'd like to ice this down. Kevin was asked about his contract, and he just wanted to turn the audience to a different direction.
"If he'd won the race today, I'd have gone to Victory Lane and congratulated him. I've got no problem with Harvick. I race him clean."
It was a wild afternoon that included a large piece of Dale Jarrett's rear bumper being knocked loose, flapping in the breeze for several laps, then finally flying off his car and into the stands.
And pit road was again a dangerous place, with Casey Mears tagging Kevin Lepage's right-front tire changer on one pit stop.
Carl Edwards was fourth and Bobby Labonte was fifth, a strong showing for the famous No. 43 Petty-owned Dodge.
Rounding out the top 10 were Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, the younger Busch, Ryan Newman and last week's Atlanta winner Kasey Kahne.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., was 11th even though he never challenged for the lead. Tony Stewart was 12th, having led the race several times before his car lost its handle for the final 30 laps.
When the smoke cleared and Busch imitated making snow angels at the finish line, he reveled in the spotlight of his first win with his new Penske Racing team and bringing home a victory at Bristol in the famous No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge.
"This is unreal to have this car and just the determination today from the crew," said Busch, who won $175,858. " I'm just so happy to be able to have the chance to drive this car and to have Roger's privilege to do so."
While telling the media that he would name the winning car “Rusty” in honor of its former driver, Busch also hope that none of the negative emotions would carry over past Sunday.
"That's what goes on, man," he said. "This racing is awesome; fans dig it. That's the big thing about Bristol; you have to come to race hard. You have to be able to hoist up the end of the trophy without any grudges."
The next event on the Nextel Cup schedule is the April 2 DIRECTV 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX.
Greg Engle, the Editor of the Cup Scene Daily is seeking employment within the motorsports journalism industry. If you are interested, please contact him at :greg@cupscene.com
By Greg Engle - Cup Scene Daily
No wonder this place sells out years in advance.
Bumping, banging, cursing, shoving, mangled sheet metal, bruised egos and near frozen concrete.
All in all a typical Bristol weekend.
The emotions ran high and low Sunday for the running of the Food City 500. Kurt Busch won the race to give the Busch Boys a weekend sweep since younger brother Kyle won Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race.
The high of the emotions came when Kurt Busch imitated making snow angels at the finish line after he brought home the famous blue deuce to score his fifth win here. A win that came, like three prior ones, with a controversial move at the end.
Busch took the lead from Matt Kenseth by bumping him just enough to disturb his car and drove underneath while Kenseth battled for control just five laps from the finish. Defending race winner Kevin Harvick also slipped past at the same time.
"An awesome short-track win for us," Busch said. "We've been close, we just haven't had the luck this year. Today we had to muscle past Kenseth, and he's a good friend of mine. ... He knows that this is short-track racing. He knows he slipped a little bit, he knows how hungry we were to win."
While acknowledging his friendship with Busch, Kenseth said he felt that his former teammate crossed the line.
"We are great friends, we always race good together," said Kenseth, who was slowed up by Dale Jarrett on the turn. "He just knocked me out of the way. I thought if he had a run under me and had me beat, that would have been OK.
"But I had a better car and could beat him off the corner," Kenseth continued. "But he just drove extra hard and knocked me out of the way. So I thought it was a little bit of a cheap shot, but I was holding everybody up. I couldn't get the 88 car (Jarrett) to get out of my way for whatever reason."
Busch cut a tire on lap 62 and dropped all the way back to 30th position before battling his way back for the victory.
The story of the first half of the race was the domination of Tony Stewart and the woes of Jimmie Johnson.
Stewart led 244 laps all in the first half of the race then battled to get a top fifteen finish, while Johnson scraped the wall on the first lap, then blew a tire shortly thereafter and spent the rest of the afternoon racing backwards.
In typical Bristol style, the field spent a great deal of the day playing bumper cars. There were at total of 18 caution flags, shy of the record of 20 and even a 15-minute red flag on lap 193 after 23 cars had been involved in seven crashes.
The cooling off period did nothing to temper emotions as later in the event Jeff Gordon booted Martin Truex Jr. who was a lap down but starting beside the leaders as he tried to get back on the lead lap.
Then, on lap 437 Truex appeared to be slowing Gordon's progress and the two made contact, which slowed them both down the backstretch. Tony Stewart, running just behind Gordon, ran into the back of Truex's Chevy, sending it slamming head-first into the inside wall.
Gordon said Truex shouldn't have slowed to let other lead-lap cars take spots in front of him, but still he seemed apologetic for spinning Truex.
"I did not want to get into Martin," Gordon said. "I know he wasn't happy with me; he shouldn't have been.
"I understand why he was upset . . . hopefully we'll talk and go on."
“We just had a rough day,” Truex commented after it was all over. “We were just about ready to get our lap back. We got our car running pretty decent. We ran a lap or two and we were the first car a lap down up there on the bottom. What did we run - two laps?
Then we just got spun out. It was unfortunate. I don't know what happened the second time. I guess we got spun out again.”
Stewart who longed strong during the first half faded at the end of the race and wound up 12th when the checkered flag waved.
"I am really disappointed," said Stewart. "We had an awesome car all day. I felt like I ran the most patient race I have ever run at Bristol. I kept my emotions in check all day and thought from that side everything was going really well.
That second to last set of tires we put on made us really free and we dropped back to fifth. Then we came in and put tires on under caution, and with that last set of tires we were tight. I couldn't turn it through the center (of the corner) at all. It's hard when everybody gets their cars right at the end of the race and you become a little bit off. It was hard to hold those guys back. So we just tried to race smart there and bring our car home in one piece."
The lowest of the emotions though can be best typified by the actions of two of the sport's mildest-mannered drivers both of whom decided to give the other a ‘friendly’ shove both on and off the track.
Former champion Matt Kenseth after recovering from Busch’s bump, ran into Jeff Gordon's rear bumper on the final lap, spinning four-time champion and costing Gordon a possible top-five finish.
Kenseth tried to apologize to Gordon after the race but was angrily shoved away by a helmet clad Gordon.
"Kenseth got shuffled out and he was holding guys up," said Gordon, who finished 21st. "We went down into (turn) 1 afterwards and he just wrecked me. I'm sure he didn't mean to do it and all that stuff. But I wasn't happy about it and I showed it to him after the race."
"I had to apologize to Jeff," Kenseth said. "He's right, it was my fault. He didn't bump me out of the way, and I did wreck him. But it was not intentional; I drove in too hard. I didn't do it on purpose, and I would be mad if I was him. I left my car to go over and apologize, which I should have waited a little bit longer."
Second place Harvick, who two days ago said he wanted "whip" Busch, raced him clean all day but continued his war of words afterward saying he was still upset with Busch: "He took a cheap shot at me last week on the racetrack (at Atlanta), and that's not something that goes over well.
"I meant exactly what I said the other day. I'm not going to take it with our cars on the track, but if I have to I'll take it out with him."
Busch finally took the time to respond to Harvick: "I'd like to ice this down. Kevin was asked about his contract, and he just wanted to turn the audience to a different direction.
"If he'd won the race today, I'd have gone to Victory Lane and congratulated him. I've got no problem with Harvick. I race him clean."
It was a wild afternoon that included a large piece of Dale Jarrett's rear bumper being knocked loose, flapping in the breeze for several laps, then finally flying off his car and into the stands.
And pit road was again a dangerous place, with Casey Mears tagging Kevin Lepage's right-front tire changer on one pit stop.
Carl Edwards was fourth and Bobby Labonte was fifth, a strong showing for the famous No. 43 Petty-owned Dodge.
Rounding out the top 10 were Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, the younger Busch, Ryan Newman and last week's Atlanta winner Kasey Kahne.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., was 11th even though he never challenged for the lead. Tony Stewart was 12th, having led the race several times before his car lost its handle for the final 30 laps.
When the smoke cleared and Busch imitated making snow angels at the finish line, he reveled in the spotlight of his first win with his new Penske Racing team and bringing home a victory at Bristol in the famous No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge.
"This is unreal to have this car and just the determination today from the crew," said Busch, who won $175,858. " I'm just so happy to be able to have the chance to drive this car and to have Roger's privilege to do so."
While telling the media that he would name the winning car “Rusty” in honor of its former driver, Busch also hope that none of the negative emotions would carry over past Sunday.
"That's what goes on, man," he said. "This racing is awesome; fans dig it. That's the big thing about Bristol; you have to come to race hard. You have to be able to hoist up the end of the trophy without any grudges."
The next event on the Nextel Cup schedule is the April 2 DIRECTV 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX.
Greg Engle, the Editor of the Cup Scene Daily is seeking employment within the motorsports journalism industry. If you are interested, please contact him at :greg@cupscene.com
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