Busch Survives and Takes the Checkered Flag at Bristol
Barry F. Hess
March 27, 2006
Put Kurt Busch in a car at Bristol Motor Speedway and he automatically has to be one of the favorites to win the race.
Put Busch inside Bristol Motor Speedway with a car suited for nine-time Bristol winner Rusty Wallace and you?ve got a recipe for, well, what happened Sunday afternoon.
After cutting a tire and going a lap down early in the race Busch trucked back toward the front and eventually bumped his former teammate Matt Kenseth out of the way to take home his fifth win at the fastest half mile in the world.
It wasn?t the fist time Busch used the bump-and-run maneuver to secure a lead and while it didn?t exactly make Kenseth very happy it?s a necessary evil to pass down low at Bristol.
You know, Matt and I are good friends and I hope we still are after today,? Busch said in victory lane. ?Maybe I bumped him but I've been bumped before and have had a win taken away from me in the past. If I get bumped by Kenseth the next week, that's cool.?
The win couldn?t have come at a better time for both Busch and Penske Racing, now 16th in the point standings.
This is just unreal man,? Busch said. ?I'm just so happy to be able to have this car and have Roger's privilege to do so.?
While it was all smiles in victory lane there were more than frowns behind the pits.
In all, 40 drivers were involved, one way or another, in a wreck, several of which started with a simple nudge similar to the one Busch gave Kenseth with five laps to go.
In a race to the finish line Kenseth and Jeff Gordon battled for the third position until a bump from Kenseth sent Gordon spinning up into the wall and an eventual 21st place finish.
A furious Gordon shoved Kenseth in pit road after the race.
I'm sure he didn't mean to do it and all that stuff, but I wasn't happy about it,? Gordon said afterwards. ?I showed it to him after the race. I like racing with Matt and that stuff rarely happens with him. But I'm going to give it back what he gives to me.?
Kenseth, now the points leader after Jimmie Johnson failed to recover from a blown tire on the first lap of the race, agreed with Gordon?s assessment of the situation.?
That was my fault, it was an accident and I didn't mean to do it,? Kenseth said. ?I would be hot, too. He raced hard all day long for his third-place finish and it got taken away from him. I probably should have known better than to go over to him.?
Kevin Harvick rebounded from the slowest start since his rookie season with a solid second place finish.
After he and Busch traded words all week about their incident last Monday in Atlanta the second place finish was bitter-sweet for Harvick.
It was a good day for us but I hate to see Kurt Busch win,? an honest Harvick said. ?He's a big whiner but what do I know??
Carl Edwards, fourth, and Ryan Newman, ninth, also enjoyed a much needed top 10 finish while Kasey Kahne, tenth, and Kyle Busch, eighth, continued their early season success.
While drivers like Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart continued to battle toward the points lead after a rocky start drivers like Jamie McMurray, Scott Riggs and Brian Vickers continued to struggle.
McMurray, who finished 35th, was involved a multiple car crash midway through the race which forced him to tear off his front end panel and replace his radiator.
Vickers, who was involved in the same crash, finished 37th while Scott Riggs finished 41st after spinning into the outside of the pit wall early on.
Jimmie Johnson dropped to third in the point standings after a blown tire and a hard smack against the wall later on ruined his reunification with crew chief Chad Knaus.
But through it all Johnson managed to battle his way to a 30th place finish despite being scored as low as 43rd at one point.
That kind of stuff happens at these race tracks,? said Knaus after his first race back from serving a four-race suspension. ?It's a tough race track. It's tough racing even if everything is going well for you.?
Put Busch inside Bristol Motor Speedway with a car suited for nine-time Bristol winner Rusty Wallace and you?ve got a recipe for, well, what happened Sunday afternoon.
After cutting a tire and going a lap down early in the race Busch trucked back toward the front and eventually bumped his former teammate Matt Kenseth out of the way to take home his fifth win at the fastest half mile in the world.
It wasn?t the fist time Busch used the bump-and-run maneuver to secure a lead and while it didn?t exactly make Kenseth very happy it?s a necessary evil to pass down low at Bristol.
You know, Matt and I are good friends and I hope we still are after today,? Busch said in victory lane. ?Maybe I bumped him but I've been bumped before and have had a win taken away from me in the past. If I get bumped by Kenseth the next week, that's cool.?
The win couldn?t have come at a better time for both Busch and Penske Racing, now 16th in the point standings.
This is just unreal man,? Busch said. ?I'm just so happy to be able to have this car and have Roger's privilege to do so.?
While it was all smiles in victory lane there were more than frowns behind the pits.
In all, 40 drivers were involved, one way or another, in a wreck, several of which started with a simple nudge similar to the one Busch gave Kenseth with five laps to go.
In a race to the finish line Kenseth and Jeff Gordon battled for the third position until a bump from Kenseth sent Gordon spinning up into the wall and an eventual 21st place finish.
A furious Gordon shoved Kenseth in pit road after the race.
I'm sure he didn't mean to do it and all that stuff, but I wasn't happy about it,? Gordon said afterwards. ?I showed it to him after the race. I like racing with Matt and that stuff rarely happens with him. But I'm going to give it back what he gives to me.?
Kenseth, now the points leader after Jimmie Johnson failed to recover from a blown tire on the first lap of the race, agreed with Gordon?s assessment of the situation.?
That was my fault, it was an accident and I didn't mean to do it,? Kenseth said. ?I would be hot, too. He raced hard all day long for his third-place finish and it got taken away from him. I probably should have known better than to go over to him.?
Kevin Harvick rebounded from the slowest start since his rookie season with a solid second place finish.
After he and Busch traded words all week about their incident last Monday in Atlanta the second place finish was bitter-sweet for Harvick.
It was a good day for us but I hate to see Kurt Busch win,? an honest Harvick said. ?He's a big whiner but what do I know??
Carl Edwards, fourth, and Ryan Newman, ninth, also enjoyed a much needed top 10 finish while Kasey Kahne, tenth, and Kyle Busch, eighth, continued their early season success.
While drivers like Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart continued to battle toward the points lead after a rocky start drivers like Jamie McMurray, Scott Riggs and Brian Vickers continued to struggle.
McMurray, who finished 35th, was involved a multiple car crash midway through the race which forced him to tear off his front end panel and replace his radiator.
Vickers, who was involved in the same crash, finished 37th while Scott Riggs finished 41st after spinning into the outside of the pit wall early on.
Jimmie Johnson dropped to third in the point standings after a blown tire and a hard smack against the wall later on ruined his reunification with crew chief Chad Knaus.
But through it all Johnson managed to battle his way to a 30th place finish despite being scored as low as 43rd at one point.
That kind of stuff happens at these race tracks,? said Knaus after his first race back from serving a four-race suspension. ?It's a tough race track. It's tough racing even if everything is going well for you.?
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