Busch wins caution-filled truck race at Bristol
Wed 20th, August 2008
Bristol, TN (Sports Network) - Kyle Busch ended Johnny Benson's bid for a record-setting fourth straight victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on Wednesday by winning the O'Reilly 200 at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch led 145 of 203 laps, survived 12 cautions and held off Todd Bodine in a green- white-checkered finish to score his third victory of the season and the ninth of his career.
Busch has now won 17 races in NASCAR's three national series this year. He has eight victories in the Sprint Cup Series compared to six in the Nationwide Series and three in the trucks.
"We had a great race tonight," Busch said. "This (truck) was pretty good when we unloaded it, same stuff as last year. We just kind of fine-tuned on it a little bit. We got into little a bit with Johnny there. I didn't even see him coming down there. I got my nose in there, and I was trying to miss a lap truck I guess."
Busch also joined Carl Edwards and Mark Martin as drivers who have won a race in all three of NASCAR's top circuits at Bristol.
Benson led the first 29 laps, but Busch tapped him from behind and made a pass on the inside to claim the lead for the first time. Busch remained in front until he made his only pit stop of the night during a caution on Lap 42. Jimmie Johnson, who made his first start in the series, elected to stay on the track and grabbed the lead from Busch.
An accident involving Tayler Malsam and Matt Crafton put the race under caution for the third time on Lap 55. When the race resumed on Lap 64, Johnson and Busch battled for the lead as the two ran side-by-side before Busch finally pulled ahead on Lap 73. Busch never relinquished the lead from there.
Johnson pitted during a caution on Lap 81 and rejoined the field in 19th. He attempted to make his way towards the front, but on Lap 102 lost control of his No.81 Chevrolet. Jeff Green hit the side of Johnson's truck, causing heavy damage to the back end. Johnson did not return as he ended up finishing 34th.
"I tried to get underneath (Jon Wood) and I kind of lost it," Johnson said. "I fought it and ran out of talent I guess."
Meanwhile, Benson hoped a similar pit strategy that won him last year's race would bring him the same luck this time. He came in on Lap 119 for four fresh tires, but fell back to 19th place.
The strategy appeared to work as he climbed back into the top-10 with 50 laps remaining and then reached the top-five with 25 laps to go.
The final 23 laps featured a rash of accidents, including one that involved defending series champion Ron Hornaday, Jr., who ended up finishing 24th.
The 12th caution, a new track record, set up an overtime finish with Busch beating Bodine in the two-lap sprint by 0.386 seconds.
Scott Speed, Benson and Rick Crawford completed the top-five.
"We're disappointed we didn't win, but at the same token, when you pull some of the same strategy that you did a year ago, we were a little further back this time," Benson said.
Benson increased his points lead to 119 over Hornaday.
The next race is scheduled for Saturday, September 6th, at the Gateway International Raceway just outside St. Louis.
Keselowski outruns Bowyer for Bristol Nationwide win
Bristol, TN (Sports Network) - Brad Keselowski took the lead from Clint Bowyer with 24 laps to go at Bristol Motor Speedway, claiming a victory in Friday's Food City 250 for his second Nationwide victory. Keselowski finished 1.025 seconds ahead of Bowyer, who won the spring event at Bristol earlier this year.
Keselowski's first Nationwide win came in June at Nashville. He is in his first full season driving the No.88 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s J.R. Motorsports.
He also moved to within 122 points of Bowyer in the championship standings with nine races remaining in the season.
"We know to win the championship, we got to win races, and that's what we did today," Keselowski said. "That's what we got to do every week. We got to run up front to get a shot at winning races."
Cale Gale captured his first Nationwide pole earlier in the day and led the first l7 laps, but Dario Franchitti moved underneath Gale and grabbed the top spot just before the first caution flag waved on Lap 18 for an incident involving Marcos Ambrose.
Franchitti led 87 circuits before Bowyer jumped out in front on Lap 105.
Carl Edwards, meanwhile, took a major hit in the points chase on Lap 87 when he made contact with Elliott Sadler and slapped the outside wall, causing severe damage to his No.60 Ford. Edwards was running fifth at the time. He returned 83 laps behind and ended up finishing 37th. The defending series champion is now 241 points behind Bowyer.
"Definitely very frustrating in the points right now," Edwards said. "My hats off to Brad for winning the race. He did a great job. Clint also did a great job. But that's not what we need them to be doing for us to win championships. We have to be up there racing with them."
Despite leading a race-high 121 laps, Bowyer was frustrated with his second- place run.
"It's been a frustrating the last two months for me," Bowyer said. "We've been struggling over here. Bottom line is we finished second, and it was a good points night for us. They expect me to win races when they put me in cars like that. It's not fair to those guys. I messed up down there."
Bowyer got loose on a restart on Lap 226, allowing Keselowski to move underneath him and grab the top spot.
Greg Biffle, Gale and David Stremme completed the top-five.
The next race is set for Saturday, August 30th, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.
Edwards defends Sharpie 500 title at Bristol
Bristol, TN (Sports Network) - Kyle Busch put on one of his most dominating performances, leading a career-high 415 laps, but Carl Edwards grabbed the lead from Busch with 31 laps to go and held it for his second-straight Sharpie 500 victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Edwards recorded his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the season and the 13th of his career. He also clinched the second seed in the championship "Chase," which begins September 14th at New Hampshire.
Busch appeared to be on the way to his ninth Sprint Cup victory of the year, but Edwards nudged him from behind. Busch got loose, allowing Edwards to move underneath him for the lead.
"I couldn't get by him," Edwards said. "I had to ask myself, 'Would he do that to me?', and he has before. That's the way it goes...You keep talking about rivalries. We might have one now."
At the conclusion of the race, a frustrated Busch retaliated by intentionally bumping Edwards on the cool-down lap. Edwards, however, got the best of the post-race ruckus when he spun Busch around.
While Edwards celebrated in Victory Lane, Busch made a trip to the NASCAR hauler for a discussion with officials.
"He hit me in turn one, which got me a little bit loose," Busch said. "Carl's gonna say he's sorry, he doesn't want to race that way; because he always does, you know, Mr. Ed-like. We'll take it and go on. We'll race him that way in the chase if that's the way he wants to race."
Edwards started on the pole and led the first 47 laps, but Jeff Gordon moved ahead of him to lead a lap and grab five bonus points. Edwards reclaimed the top spot the following lap.
Busch moved up to the front for the first time on Lap 55 when Edwards bumped the lapped car of Juan Pablo Montoya, allowing Busch to make the pass.
Busch dodged a bullet on Lap 280 when Dave Blaney spun in turn two and slammed the inside wall hard. Blaney's Toyota shot up the track and then slid down. Busch, running close behind, had to quickly slow down and move to the lower end of the track to avoid Blaney.
Bristol turned out to be a great night for some "Chase" contenders but no so good for others.
Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Gordon completed the top five. All three drivers are currently on the championship "bubble."
On Lap 26, Jimmie Johnson made contact with Sterling Marlin and suffered significant damage to the right front fender of his Chevrolet. Johnson pitted twice for repairs and fell 13 laps behind. The defending series champion finished 33rd.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. went a lap down in the early stages when he had to serve a pass-through penalty. He was black-flagged for passing before the start-finish line at the start of the race, but managed to work his way back in the field and settled for an 18th-place finish.
The second caution came on Lap 195 for an incident involving Marlin, Joe Nemechek and Jeff Burton, who won at Bristol earlier in the year. Burton was running sixth at the time.
"Two cars got together in front of me, and the car behind me just slowed down," Burton said. "It was a typical Bristol wreck." Burton finished 42nd but remained fifth in points.
A multi-car pileup on Lap 216 put a serious dent in Kasey Kahne's championship bid. Casey Mears got turned around after he hit the front end of Michael Waltrip. Mears slammed the wall while several drivers, including Kahne, hit him in the process. Sam Hornish, Jr., Robby Gordon, David Reutimann and Reed Sorenson were also involved in the accident. Kahne finished 40th.
"I just got blocked-in behind a few cars, and some cars in front of me started wrecking," Kahne said. "I got hit from behind, so we just tore the car up pretty good."
Kahne is now 14th in the standings, 56 points behind new 12th-place Clint Bowyer, who finished seventh.
The next race is scheduled for Sunday, August 31st, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.
Castroneves gets first win in 30 races
SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -Helio Castroneves didn't want to let Team Penske down.
Five days after one of the team's trucks caught fire during the long trek from its race shop in North Carolina to California, badly damaging the primary cars of Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe, the teammates drove their hastily prepared backup cars to a 1-2 finish in the Grand Prix of Sonoma.
``In my perspective, it's a great and special week for us,'' said Castroneves, whose victory ended a 29-race winless streak. It also put him right back into the IndyCar Series championship battle with points leader Scott Dixon, who appeared to be in control until finishing 12th on Sunday.
``It's like all the hard work, it paid off, unexpected hard work,'' said Castroneves, who won for the first time since taking the checkered flag at St. Petersburg on April 1, 2007.
Despite the frustration of seven runner-up finishes, and the fact that he had never led a lap at Infineon Raceway, Castroneves said he had a feeling that Sunday could be his day.
Known as Spider Man for his fence-climbing celebrations, Castroneves acknowledged that he checked out the best place to make his climb - just in case.
``I did, actually,'' Castroneves said. ``There were photographers there and I told them exactly where I was going to go. I said, 'Right there. Make sure you wait for me there.' It's just a positive attitude.''
Meanwhile, Dixon suffered through one of his worst days of the season and saw his lead shrink from a seemingly comfortable 78 points to 43 heading into next week's race at Detroit's Belle Isle, the penultimate race of the season.
Castroneves, who led four times for 51 of the 80 laps, was almost delirious with joy as he crossed the finish line, screaming and hollering, ``Bring it home, baby.''
Living up to his prerace promise to those photographers, the Brazilian scrambled out of his No. 3 Dallara Honda at the finish line and ran to the short fence behind the pits. He quickly climbed it and found himself surrounded by admiring fans.
Castroneves then jumped back down to the track and sprinted back to his team, joining them in a group hug.
``They kept telling me, 'Push, push, push.' And I was pushing to the limit,'' Castroneves said. ``There was nothing left out there.
``That was fun, a lot of fun. Oh my God, this is awesome. We've been close so often. We never lost faith. This is great for Detroit.''
Tim Cindric, president of Team Penske and the man who manages the races for Castroneves, said, ``We would not have won this race if Helio hadn't driven the wheels off it when he needed to. ... We will keep going and see where we end up at the end of the year.
``I think our approach next weekend is the same: We go for broke. That's the only thing that is going to get us where we need to be.''
As happy as Castroneves and his team were, Dixon was just as frustrated.
``It was definitely a bad day. We lost a ton of points,'' the New Zealander said. ``This is a race that's very tough. Unfortunately, we got the bad end of the stick. I guess we just need to shrug it off and come back strong next week.''
Team owner Chip Ganassi said Dixon is still the favorite to add another title to the one he won in 2003.
``I think if Helio wins the next two (races), we just have to place fourth, so we should be able to do that,'' Ganassi said. ``We just have to stay behind him. We're OK. We have a long way to go yet.''
Castroneves, who started from the pole Sunday, won this one, his 13th career victory, with a perfect pit strategy and a very strong car.
He gave up the lead on his first stop on lap 17 of the 80-lap event and regained the top spot when the last of the leaders, rookie E.J. Viso, finally pitted on lap 36. By the time Castroneves pitted again on lap 44, he had built a lead of more than 16.5 seconds over Briscoe.
That put the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner right where he wanted to be. After he made the last of his three fuel stops on lap 57, all Castroneves had to do was wait for the drivers ahead of him to make their last stops.
He took over the lead for good on lap 59 when Viso pitted and easily led the rest of the way on the 2.245-mile, 12-turn road course, beating Briscoe to the finish line by 5.29 seconds - about 30 car lengths.
Tony Kanaan and Den Wheldon, both eliminated from championship contention on Sunday, finished third and fourth, followed by Danica Patrick and Viso.
When Dixon made his second of three stops, also on lap 44, he was third, just behind Briscoe. But Dixon came out of that stop deep in the pack and was never in contention again.
``I'm not upset with anybody, particularly. We just did absolutely nothing right,'' said Dixon, who has a record-tying six wins this season and had only two finishes worse than fourth until Sunday. ``Everything we did was wrong.''