Kyle Busch
Nationwide
Busch started sixth and by lap 19, he was battling teammate Joey Logano for the lead. By lap 23, he achieved his goal and held on to the lead. A caution came out around lap 30 when Brian Keselowski had a solo crash and upon the restart on lap 36, Busch had a great restart, jumping out about four car lengths. On lap 53 a caution came out for debris and Busch did not pit, keeping his lead. He lost the lead on lap 82 to Kasey Kahne, after getting caught up in lead traffic at the half-mile track. On lap 93, the race was red-flagged after a horrible wreck between Colin Braun and Steven Wallace (both were okay). When the race went back to yellow, Busch beat Kahne off pit road but four cars didn't pit so he restarted fifth. With the four cars in front of him on old tires, he would have to work hard to regain his lead. He caught a break when Kahne's car overheated and stayed on pit road during a caution but Busch still hadn't regained his lead by lap 133 (started fourth). On lap 146, Busch got into Kelly Bires, spinning him into the wall bringing out a caution. He remained in the top 10 for most of the race. With 90 laps left, he was in 7th place. Busch moved up to third with 25 laps to go. He stayed there until the checkered flag.
Cup
Busch, the defending champion of the race, crashed five minutes into the first practice due to a problem with the right rear tire and could never seem to get it fixed. He started 38th and wasn't making much noise, except for trying not to be lapped. On the second caution of the day, brought out by Clint Bowyer's engine blowing up, he radioed about his car being very tight. He continued to have a bad day, with no grip and bad tires. Coming off of the third caution (lap 113), he was 25th. On lap 237, after complaining all day of no grip and other issues, his tire blew and hit the wall rather hard (the same problem his teammate Denny Hamlin had earlier in the race). After “the big one” on lap 342, Busch restarted 17th. With 60 laps to go, the moved up to 11th. When the late-race caution came out for teammate Joey Logano with 18 to go, he pitted and came out 7th. With 10 to go, he finished 9th.
Kurt Busch
Read the entire article at the LV NASCAR Examiner.
Photo courtesy: Farrah Kaye
This post also appears on examiner.com and has been republished with permission from the author.
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