Kyle Busch Fights Back From A Lap Down For Talladega Victory

[PressRoom-GFN]

By Deb Williams

TALLADEGA, Ala. (April 27, 2007) – Kyle Busch came from one lap down to muscle his way into the lead with five laps remaining in Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, then eluded two accidents on the final lap to claim his second victory this season.

“Today was just due to having a great car,” Busch said after providing Joe Gibbs Racing with its third victory in nine races this season. “Mark (Cronquist) and all those guys at the shop did an awesome job building a great Toyota engine today.

“I'm greatly appreciative that I was able to win today, because it's just been a struggle here at this place for certainly a couple years. I don't think I've ever finished one here yet without having some sort of damage. Today, we still had damage, but it wasn't enough to keep us from victory lane.”

Across NASCAR's top three series, Busch has now won seven races this season. In the Craftsman Truck Series, he's won at California and Atlanta. In the Nationwide Series, he's won at Texas, Phoenix and Mexico City. And in the Sprint Cup Series, he's won at Atlanta and Talladega.

In Sunday's race, Busch lost a lap early in the 188-lap event when he was blocked from entering his pit stall on lap 62 during a series of green-flag stops and had to make another lap before he could pit. The incident left him 35th, one lap down. He didn't regain the lost lap until the second caution period, which began on lap 118, when he received the free pass.

“I looked at the scoreboard and saw there's 100 laps to go,” Busch said about the lost-lap incident. “I figure there's got to be another caution at some point and we need to keep ourselves in the position of the lucky draw. Fortunately, I was fast enough to be within the lead group of cars and keep myself going by those guys. When the caution did fall, we were a couple spots ahead and, I think at that time it was my brother, so we were able to get back on the lead lap.”

In the high-speed chess game that had 52 lead changes among 20 drivers, Busch led only 12 laps. Once he returned to the lead lap, he threaded his way through the field. When the race returned to green-flag conditions on lap 169 following the fifth caution period, Busch was seventh.

“About 10 (laps) to go, things got crazy so really my memory is a little scratchy, but getting through there was problematic,” Busch said. “I was running fourth or fifth and got a bump draft ... and got into (Jamie) McMurray there. We were able to straighten up and get going; 42 [Juan Pablo Montoya] pushed me all the way to the front. Montoya gave me a great shot, got us both up to the front two spots and we rode there and stayed together.”

Busch assumed the lead on lap 173 and maintained the top position when the race restarted following the sixth caution period on lap 178. However, he got shuffled backwards and found himself in third when the seventh caution period began. This time, Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson were in front of him, while Montoya was on his rear bumper. When the green-flag waved, Busch wasted little time in making his first-place bid. When Johnson dove low on Waltrip as they exited turn two, Busch muscled his Toyota under Johnson's Chevrolet and into the lead with Montoya in tow.

“On that restart, we shifted the 55 [Waltrip] out and I think (Jeff) Gordon got in behind me somehow, and Jeff was pushing me,” Busch recounted. “We bump drafted Jimmie (Johnson) out of the way off of (turn) four. I got out underneath him and Jeff pushed me past the 48 [Johnson]. We got the 24 [Gordon] shut out of line by the 42 [Montoya], again, and it was the 18 [Busch] and 42 there at the end and the 11 [Denny Hamlin], so that was pretty cool.”

The last-lap dash to the checkered flag was cut short by an 11-car crash in turn two, which occurred a few seconds after Michael McDowell spun his Toyota entering turn one. The field was immediately frozen and Busch had his first Talladega victory and the sixth of his young career.

“It was an exciting race,” Busch said. “There were times where it got pretty impatient and guys were making bold moves and bump drafting and it got a little crazy, but it all worked out.”

Montoya's second-place finish was his first top 10 this year, as well as his first in three Cup races at the 2.66-mile track.

“I really helped Kyle. I managed to get on his bumper, and when you can get on somebody's bumper, you can actually push them all the way around,” Montoya said. “I made up a bunch of ground and it was good. I got up to second and then dropped to fifth and got up to second again. It was pretty cool, pretty interesting race.”

Hamlin's third-place finish was his best-ever in five races at Talladega, eclipsing his previous best of fourth in October 2007.

“It was really fun from my standpoint,” Hamlin said about the mentally draining event.
“You know, I had a car that just relatively could do whatever it wanted to do, and whenever I wanted to pull up to somebody's bumper, I would. When I would push him, I would push him as long as my water gage would let me or as long as they could hang on to it.

“That's all you can ask for and to have a car as good as ours, the best car doesn't always win. You've got to put yourself in position. We were with 20 (laps) to go and (we) just made a bad move there, got shuffled out, and got back to 20th. With all the cautions, all we had time to get back to was third; just shows how strong our car was.”

The race's first 117 laps contained only one caution flag, but as the race progressed and the competitors became more aggressive the yellow flags increased with five occurring in the final 28 laps. No one was injured in the accidents.

Jeff Burton maintained his lead in the point standings. Busch is second, 22 points behind Burton. Rounding out the top 12, respectively, are: Dale Earnhardt Jr; Hamlin; Jimmie Johnson; Kevin Harvick; Clint Bowyer; Greg Biffle; Tony Stewart; Carl Edwards; Ryan Newman; and Montoya.

NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series now travels to Richmond, Va., for Saturday night's Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400.

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