Kyle Busch fights for control of his car after contact with another driver. Busch would survive two such incidents and come back to nip Tony Stewart at the line for the victory Saturday night in the Bud Shootout at Daytona. Photo by Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Kyle Busch showed why he’s still the most exciting drivers to watch in NASCAR, as he put on one of the best performances of his career and capped it off by stealing a victory from defending champion Tony Stewart on the last lap of Saturday night’s crash-filled Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch used a slingshot maneuver in the final 100 yards to slip past Stewart on the outside on the final lap of the green-white-checkered finish to win his first-career Budweiser Shootout by a margin of victory of just 0.013 seconds.
Marcos Ambrose was third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin.
Busch did everything but wreck or hit the pace car, making spectacular saves after getting turned sideways twice during the course of the race – both times he was able to continue on despite a shower of sparks and crumpled front end on his No. 18 Toyota Camry, one of only 11 cars to finish the race out of the 25 that started.
“I don’t know how many times I spun out and didn’t spin out,” said Busch. “Amazing race. It was fun to drive when I wasn’t getting turned around. Tough race, but a fun race. Glad to see the pack back like that and making it interesting for us drivers – hopefully, it was great for the fans as much as it was for us drivers.
“I was trying to stay with the 39 (Ryan Newman) and I pulled low and got in behind (Tony) Stewart and just mowed right up through there. (Stewart) had a fast car and took us by those guys around the outside and I’m like, ‘It’s a two-guy race right now and it’s going to be either me or him coming to the start-finish line off of turn four.’ I’ve seen the move done before, it was my turn to do it this time — Stewart had me the last time here in July a couple years ago. I’m glad it was the M&M’s car and put me here in victory lane.”
The win was a vindication for Busch, who was parked by NASCAR last November at Texas Motor Speedway for an on-track incident and then his sponsor M&M’s yanked their colors off his car for the final two races to show their displeasure.
But now, as Busch said during last month’s media tour – it’s a new season.
And what a way to start.
After getting caught up in a wreck during Friday’s opening practice session, Busch started at the rear of the field in a back-up car in the 75-lap exhibition event pitting NASCAR’s top drivers in a pre-season warm up for the season-opening Daytona 500.
As if to show everyone exactly who the top driver is, Busch put on a display of his driving prowess with two improbable but equally impressive saves during the race.
The first, coming off the bumper of Jimmie Johnson on lap 48, resulted in little more that cosmetic damage to Busch car as he was able to continue on a rejoin the field.
The second, during lap 74 after a bump from Jeff Gordon, touched off an eight-car pileup that saw Gordon flip over onto his roof as he slid down the short chute. Again, Busch recovered, and rejoined the field in ninth place for the final restart.
With the race now going to an overtime three-lap dash to the finish, Busch hooked up with Newman, going to the front of the pack before ducking down behind Stewart to complete lap one.
Up front, Ambrose, Keselowski and Newman hooked up and began to pull away before Busch and Stewart blasted by on the outside to take the lead at the white flag.
Running nose to tail through the final lap, Busch chose his moment, diving to the outside just as they entered the tri-oval to shoot past Stewart for the victory by mere inches.
“I knew he (Kyle Busch) was going to pull out but he at least got us up there where we needed to be. It reminded me of when we were in the opposite positions coming down here,” said Stewart. “I wasn’t going to put myself in a position to wreck myself, but I thought I left enough room to break the seal and get a little air between us. He did a good job. He did exactly what he needed to do.”
Saturday night’s race was the first chance for drivers and team to try out NASCAR’s new restrictor-plate rules package under race conditions.
During pre-season testing held at Daytona last month, NASCAR implemented new changes to the restrictor plates commonly used at Daytona and Talladega as well as a new aerodynamics package designed to eliminate the two-car tandem drafted that dominated the four restrictor-plate races last year.
The new changes seems to work, as most of the racing took place in familiar three-wide packs many have become accustomed to at Daytona, but as a consequence any of the “bump-drafting” the drivers made had a tendency to turn the cars sideways, causing mayhem in the form of three multi-car wrecks.
No less than 20 cars were tangled up in three fireballs that all started from an errant bump from behind that sent a car out of control.
This is viable for men, positively not for ladies. But perhaps it’s the supplement’s ability to help out tadalafil canadian with enhancing the male’s sexual performance is the most sought-after benefit. Marijuana is a sex killer drug while some of the users found it much effective to enhance the performance. Therefore, strictly avoid going with depression.
Despite the calamity, most drivers agreed the elimination is the two-car tandem drafting was a definite improvement.
“I like this better than what we had last year, definitely,” said Gordon. “The difference now is that we’re still bump-drafting. We just can’t do it for long periods of time. So now we’re doing it in packs. And so you get on the straightaway. You push a little bit. And once the tires get a little bit of heat in them and we have less downforce, so the cars are moving around a lot. So you’ve got to be real careful with how you push and when you push and it’s definitely going to take some patience.”
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Budweiser Shootout – February 18, 2012
1. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 82, $198550.
2. (15) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 82, $94800.
3. (21) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 82, $54800.
4. (3) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 82, $45800.
5. (16) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 82, $44800.
6. (7) Greg Biffle, Ford, 82, $43400.
7. (13) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 82, $42050.
8. (17) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 82, $40025.
9. (11) Carl Edwards, Ford, 82, $38025.
10. (25) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 82, $36525.
11. (12) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 81, $36025.
12. (9) AJ Allmendinger, Dodge, 80, $35525.
13. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 79, $35025.
14. (18) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Accident, 74, $33525.
15. (14) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, Accident, 73, $33025.
16. (4) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, Accident, 73, $32525.
17. (6) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 73, $30025.
18. (10) Joey Logano, Toyota, Accident, 54, $28025.
19. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, Accident, 54, $25025.
20. (8) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 54, $23025.
21. (23) Matt Kenseth, Ford, Accident, 54, $21025.
22. (22) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, Accident, 54, $20025.
23. (24) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, Accident, 8, $18030.
24. (5) David Ragan, Ford, Accident, 8, $16030.
25. (20) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, Accident, 8, $15032.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 124.096 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 39 Mins, 07 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.013 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 22 laps.
Lead Changes: 26 among 13 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Truex Jr. 0; D. Earnhardt Jr. 1-3; J. McMurray 4; J. Logano 5; K. Harvick 6; D. Earnhardt Jr. 7-15; K. Harvick 16; J. McMurray 17; M. Truex Jr. 18-22; J. McMurray 23-25; J. Gordon 26-27; G. Biffle 28-33; A. Allmendinger 34; G. Biffle 35-36; J. Montoya 37; J. McMurray 38-42; M. Truex Jr. 43-44; J. Johnson 45; K. Harvick 46-47; J. Gordon 48-51; J. McMurray 52; G. Biffle 53-61; J. Gordon 62-71; Kyle Busch 72-73; T. Stewart 74-80; M. Ambrose 81; Kyle Busch 82.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): G. Biffle 3 times for 17 laps; J. Gordon 3 times for 16 laps; D. Earnhardt Jr. 2 times for 12 laps; J. McMurray 5 times for 11 laps; T. Stewart 1 time for 7 laps; M. Truex Jr. 2 times for 7 laps; K. Harvick 3 times for 4 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 3 laps; J. Logano 1 time for 1 lap; A. Allmendinger 1 time for 1 lap; J. Montoya 1 time for 1 lap; J. Johnson 1 time for 1 lap; M. Ambrose 1 time for 1 lap.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.