Kyle Busch Wins Amid Spins and Wrecks!
By: Drew Hierwarter
Well, for those folks who go to the races just to see the crashes, the Las Vegas NASCAR weekend was a tour d’ force. For the rest of us, it was less than stellar. A record number of caution flags in both the Nationwide race on Saturday and the Sprint Cup race on Sunday meant many laps behind the pace car and a race that could never establish a rhythm or develop much excitement. It was mostly a question of who would spin out next, or who would suffer the next engine failure and who would survive to the end.
Matt Kenseth came into the weekend hoping to do something that had never been done before, win the first three races of the season (After scoring two straight victories at Daytona and California). But the flagman barely had time to put the green flag away when the engine in Kenseth’s Roush Racing Ford expired relegating him to the 43rd and last finishing position. Roush teammate David Ragan also suffered a blown engine. The problem wasn’t limited to the Fords however, as Todd Bodine’s Toyota and Mark Martin’s Chevrolet also suffered from catastrophic failures.
During practice on Friday several Toyotas also had engine “issues” that had the TRD engine shop dynos back in Costa Mesa, California running through the night trying to find an answer. The Joe Gibbs Toyota crew changed an engine in Kyle Busch’s car during practice which, in spite of his winning the pole on Friday, meant that he had to start the race from the back on Sunday. This set up the unusual record of Busch being the first driver to win at Las Vegas from the “pole”, (He’s officially the pole sitter even though he didn’t actually start there.) but he had to come from the 43rd starting spot to do it, farther back than any previous Las Vegas winner.
The race also had a surprising number of mistakes and single car spinouts by some of the most experienced drivers on the circuit. Jimmy Johnson slid right through his pit box during one stop while his teammate Jeff Gordon missed pit road entirely. The resulting skid past the pit entrance led to a blown left front tire that took Gordon out of contention for a win. Gordon finished 6th while Johnson, who led the most laps, came in 24th after crashing with only 5 laps to go.
Kyle Busch has now won 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup races, nine of them since he began driving for Joe Gibbs Racing last year. Each of those 13 wins has come on different tracks and this was his first on his home track at Las Vegas. (Busch grew up and went to school just a few miles from Las Vegas Motor Speedway and began his racing career on “The Bullring” that is just outside turn 1 of the big speedway.)
The NASCAR circuit now moves back to its roots in the South with next week’s Atlanta 500. It’s a safe bet that most of the crewmen and drivers will be happy to have Las Vegas in their rear view mirror.