By: Tony Rizzuti – MRN
FONTANA, Calif. – Kyle Busch must have figured if you are going to make the long trip to California, you might has well take home all the hardware. And that’s exactly what he did – in following up on his Nationwide Series win – with a victory today in the Auto Club 400.
Busch may have been the most dominant car, but he literally stole the race away after an aggressive battle between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin in the final laps opened the door as those two drivers slammed the Turn 4 wall. Logano was able to continue across the line finishing third. Hamlin was taken to the infield car center in an ambulance after slamming the inside wall, lifting all four tires off the ground. He was airlifted, due to heavy traffic, to a local hospital for further evaluation.
“When they both went to the bottom in (turns) three and four — I’m like, ‘Oh man, this is golden,” said Busch, who captured his second Cup win at ACS. “Lo and behold, I put my foot to it and drove around the outside of them before they started crashing or maybe they were crashing, I’m not sure. man, it feels good to finally win.”
While Busch’s winning streak for the weekend was extended, he actually also ended a streak for Toyota. The manufacturer came into the event 0-for-10 in the Sprint Cup Series at the 2-mile speedway. Given the fact that that company’s racing development headquarters are located roughly an hour away – the win was even sweeter.
“I can’t say enough about everyody at TRD (Toyota Racing Development),” Busch said. “Being right here in California — finally, finally we get the ‘home’ win for Toyota.”
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took advantage of a late pitstop, fresh Goodyear tires and drove his way up through the field finishing second – his best finish of 2013. He also took over the Series points lead from Brad Keselowski.
“I was running around the bottom of the corner and they were battling and slowing up,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I was just trying to get all I could and felt like Kyle had the best shot of winning the race because those other two guys were slowing down, running so hard and I was just lucky to get by on the inside there. I was just happy where we finished. I thought the car was good enough to finish in the top-five, so I’m glad we were able to get up there.”
Joey Logano was able to keep his battered car moving and was scored in third. When asked what happened at the end of the race, Logano said, “Racing for the lead. Going for the win. That is what you’ve got to do.”
Carl Edwards was fourth and it was another impressive finish for Kurt Busch and his Furniture Row team. He parlayed a 10th-place starting spot into a fifth-place finish.
“It was awesome, with (crew chief) Todd Berrier’s pit strategy to get us back up to the front,” said Kurt Busch. “The way the race played out for us at the end, I was looking at the bumper of the 16 car (Greg Biffle) going down the back straightaway with a run and he was right on the 99 (Carl Edwards) and I was able to pass both Biffle and edwards on the top side as well as the wrecking 22 and 11. They have us scored as third, but we’ll see where they post things at the end.
Busch was later moved from third place to fifth in the official results.
Edwards was excited about how his day played out.
“Man, that was just an unbelievable race,” he said. “It is so cool to come here to California and have a standard old school NASCAR race where tires make a difference. It was really a great show. I hope the fans enjoyed it. That is about as good as it gets.
“Congrats to Kyle (Busch), he hung on,” added Edwards. “I knew the third place guy was going to win. I could just feel the tension up there between Joey and Denny. I had a feeling the third place guy would win. Kyle and I had a heck of a battle for third and he got me and he won the race. He did a good job.”
The race was best defined by 400-miles slipping, sliding, and disagreements. Warm temperatures made the track greasy and hard to get a grip on. Add in the dreaded seams that frame each layer of asphalt, oil from a blown motor,and you had multiple cars bouncing off the SAFER barriers all afternoon.
Those temperatures boiled over both on and off the track. The contact between Logano and Hamlin will not doubt extended their personal disagreements. You can also add Tony Stewart to the list of drivers that are upset with Logano. During post race cool down, Stewart was anything when he climbed out of his Chevrolet. He approached Logano and the two briefly exchanged punches before the two were seperated by team members and officials.
But for Kyle Busch, it was another dominating performance and a sign that he will be one to watch for the 2013 championship.
“This one is for Joe Gibbs (owner), said Kyle Busch. “We finally get one for him and it was a lot of fun today”
Next week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads East to Martinsville, Virginia for the STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Motor Racing Network will have all the action for you on WEBO.
