Stewart briefly led the race in the early laps but his team was never able to make the adjustments that were needed to keep the car up front. As the race went from day to night, the car slipped back in the field. Stewart finished the race 23rd and dropped one spot to ninth in the Sprint Cup standings.
Newman won the race with a combination of luck, a good pit call, and a mistake by Jeff Gordon. A late-race caution sent the drivers to pit road for tires. Newman and Gordon took two tires each and the duo re-started on the front row. A tire spin by Gordon was all Newman needed to grab the lead and get his first victory after 77 winless races.
Stewart was both pleased and frustrated after the race. "As a driver, I hate the way I ran tonight. But as an owner, I'm very happy for Ryan," Stewart said.
Nationwide: Busch ran the Combos scheme on his No. 18 Toyota in Phoenix. He has never lost while running the Combos car, which was a stat he wished to keep. He started on the outside of row one to pole-sitter Carl Edwards so he wouldn't have to go far to get the checkered flag. He took the lead on lap one and pretty much stayed there the entire race. He ran in to some trouble on a late-race restart and was black-flagged when he jumped the restart, losing the lead to Brad Keselowski. With seven laps to go he was 10th, with five to go he was second and eventually he took the checkered flag for the 32nd time in his Nationwide career.
Cup: Busch started 17th and led 113 laps. He made his way to the front slowly and was in the top 10 for most of the day. On lap 296 he finally took the lead away from Jimmie Johnson who had been leading for 113 laps. On lap 372, with six laps left, a caution came out. When most of the other drivers took two tires, Busch took four, causing him to come out of the pits eighth. He never recovered and finished the race in the same place.
Kurt Busch
The older Busch had a hard day in the desert. He started 19th and on lap 15, after getting loose and getting into Kasey Kahne he was then hit by Denny Hamlin. He spent much of the next several laps on Pit Road. He finished in 35th place, 12 laps down.
Photo courtesy: Farrah Kaye
This article originally published at LV NASCAR Examiner and republished with author's permission.
Look for Farrah’s recap of the race weekend and Busch’s victory in her Busch vs Busch column that will appear on Skirts and Scuffs in the next few days. For now here’s the recap provided by Reid Spencer of the Sporting News Wire Service. What an amazing race!
(April 9, 2010) - AVONDALE, Ariz.—Surging to the front after a restart with eight laps left in Friday night's Bashas' Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kyle Busch overcame a potentially devastating penalty with 50 laps left to post his second Nationwide Series win of the year and the 32nd of his career, third most all-time.
Busch restarted 10th on Lap 193 of 200 at the 1-mile track. By Lap 195 he had gained second position, and on Lap 196 he passed eventual third-place finisher Brad Keselowski for the lead.
Kevin Harvick passed Keselowski and came home second. Brendan Gaughan ran fourth and Greg Biffle fifth. Polesitter Carl Edwards, Paul Menard, Scott Lagasse Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
Keselwski took the lead in the series standings by four points over Edwards.
Logano led at the final restart but fell back through the field after sustaining damage from contact with Busch's car on pit road on Lap 191.
"Man, this car was pretty awesome tonight," Busch said. "It was super, super fast. Hopefully, that was an exciting win for the fans. I don't know how we could have made it any better of a show right there."
Busch led the field to a restart on Lap 137 from the outside lane, but Keselowski nosed ahead before the cars reached the start-finish line. Cars in the outside lane stacked up behind Busch, triggering a 10-car wreck that necessitated a stoppage of nearly 10 minutes, as track workers cleaned up the debris.
NASCAR ruled that Busch failed to restart the race in the designated area between two red lines on the frontstretch wall and awarded the top position to Keselowski. On the subsequent restart on Lap 145,
NASCAR posted Busch's No. 18 Toyota for a pass-through penalty for jumping the restart.
The penalty dropped Busch to 19th in the running order, 20 seconds behind Keselowski. Over the next 38 laps, Busch improved to 11th before NASCAR called a caution for debris on Lap 188.
"All I know is I paid NASCAR back by winning," Busch said.
Busch dominated early, having led 96 laps by the time Steve Wallace blew a right front tire on Lap 111 and bounced his No. 66 Toyota into the No. 01 Chevrolet of his uncle, Mike Wallace, to cause the fourth caution of the race.
In fact, the only segment of the race Busch didn't lead resulted from an out-of-sequence pit stop on Lap 17. Keselowski inherited the top spot for 15 laps, but Clint Bowyer stalled in Turn 1 to bring out the second caution, and Busch regained the lead by remaining on the track.
Bowyer replaced John Wes Townley in Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 Chevrolet after Townley wrecked the car in Friday morning's Nationwide practice session.
Townley, 20, crashed hard into the outside wall at the 1-mile track. Bowyer subsequently qualified a backup car 21st for Friday night's race.
It was an unexpectedly busy weekend at Phoenix International Speedway for Clint Bowyer. Coming into the first Saturday night race of the season, Bowyer was ninth and points and ready to put all his focus on the Subway Fresh Fit 600.
On Friday, Bowyer practiced his No. 33 Cheerio's/Hamburger Chevrolet in both Sprint Cup practices, putting the No. 33 sixth and 13th on the speed charts.
During the only Nationwide Series practice of the day John Wes Townley had a hard wreck and Richard Childress Racing announced Bowyer would take over the No. 21 car for Friday's Nationwide race.
After Cup practices were over, Bowyer qualified the Nationwide car 21st, and headed back to the Cup garage to qualify his No. 33 25th.
Despite rumors in the garage, Bowyer said before the Basha's Supermarkets 200 began that he had no intention of driving the Zaxby's Chevrolet for the rest of the year, and that Townley was "a good kid from a good family."
Trouble for the No. 21 team came on lap 31 when Bowyer hit the wall. However, Bowyer spent most of the race successfully battling his way toward the front.
Late in the race, Bowyer managed to escape a multi car wreck, caused by leader Kyle Busch's bad restart, with minimal damage.
Bowyer would finish the race just outside the top ten, in 11th.
On Saturday night, Bowyer started mid pack but he and teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton were all in a hurry to get to the front.
Upon the lap 22 restart Clint Bowyer, in the midst of traffic, spun the 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, bringing out the second caution of the night. The No. 33 escaped with no damage, while McMurray had to bring his Chevy down pit road for repairs.
By lap 71, Bowyer had cracked the top ten and stayed there the majority of the night. He didn't make much noise there, however, until late in the race. He and Jeff Gordon had an intense side by side battle for third on lap 361, but Gordon ultimately prevailed.
Bowyer continued to challenge in the top five, but the pit stop prior to the green white checkered back tracked on Bowyer's momentum, and he fell back out of the top five. He finished ninth.
The finish,though, shot Bowyer three spots up to sixth in points. Next up for Bowyer is the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 18, 3 PM ET on FOX.
Thanks to Racing Reference, NASCAR.com, NASCAR on FOX, ESPN2, Jayski, ClintBowyer.com, SceneDaily.com, and NNSRacing.com for the information, quotes and stats used in this post.
For Patti Rodisch's Lugnut Report on Martin Truex, Jr. click here.
Ryan Newman's luck finally changed Saturday night when a late-race caution, a two-tire pit stop call, and a bad restart by race leader Jeff Gordon helped put Newman in victory lane for the first time in 77 races.
A late caution extended the Subway Fresh Fit 600 three laps past its scheduled distance of 375 laps. Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson each took four tires on Lap 373. Jeff Gordon, who also took two tires, finished behind Newman after spinning his tires on the restart.
Tony Gibson, Newman's crew chief, wanted to go with four tires but Newman made the suggestion to only take two. Gibson ultimately agreed and it proved to be the right call. Newman said after the race that he was surprised that no team chose to not take tires in order to improve track position.
The win by Newman was also the first of the season for Stewart-Haas. Owner/driver Tony Stewart has failed to make it to victory lane this year.
Newman had bad luck through the first part of the season with a crash, blow engine and pit-stop mistakes. A fourth-place finish two weeks ago at Martinsville, however, seemed to be the turning point for the team. The Phoenix win moved Newman up six positions to 16th in the Sprint Cup standings.
Ryan Newman Grabbed First Stewart-Haas Victory of 2010 at Phoenix
