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Points leader Kyle Busch made mincemeat of the competition and a mockery of Sunday’s Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway.
In a race that stayed green for the final 153 laps, Busch gained a total of 5 seconds over runner-up Carl Edwards on his final two pit stops, built a lead that topped 8 seconds and cruised in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a 4.225-second win, his fourth of the season and the eighth of his career.
Pole-sitter Greg Biffle ran third, followed by Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr., as only six cars finished on the lead lap.
Busch grabbed the lead from Edwards during a cycle of green-flag pit stops that ended on Lap 237. NASCAR called a caution on Lap 243 for debris in Turn 2—under which the leaders remained on the track—and after a restart on Lap 248, Edwards dogged Busch until both drivers brought their cars to the pits under green on Lap 319.
Busch gained almost 3 seconds on pit road and pulled away steadily for the next 60 laps before backing off in the closing circuits.
“We didn’t have the car to beat [Sunday],” said Busch, who expanded his lead in the championship standings over eighth-place finisher Jeff Burton to 142 points. “Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle did. But our guys on pit road [were] phenomenal—got us out front—and that’s what won the race for us. The guys that pitted this thing on pit road definitely won the race for us.”
Busch heard the familiar boos during pre-race introductions which have cemented his status as NASCAR’s least-popular driver. He has some fun in the role and seems to have accepted the fact he’s NASCAR’s latest “Bad Boy.”
“I want to thank all the fans even if they’re not Kyle Busch fans,” he said.
“No good,” said Edwards, who won the race here in September. “Not what we came here to do.
Busch, Biffle and Edwards were lucky to be out front early and miss the 10-car wreck on the 18th lap that took out five of the top-eight Chase drivers. Elliott Sadler was turned into the wall and his No. 19 Dodge was smashed into by Tony Stewart’s No. 20 car, triggering a massive pile up that put several cars in the garage and ended all hope of contention.
Denny Hamlin was knocked out of the race, and Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer all returned later with their cars either missing a hood, a fender or running 100-plus laps behind. But they didn’t want to quit and give up a shot at earning needed points, even if all the best the drivers could do was run slow and try and stay out of the way of the leaders.
“I take 100% responsibility,” Stewart said. “It’s my fault for being anywhere close to Elliott — If I’m within a half lap of him I expect that to happen”.
Six cars were still in the garage when the race resumed after a 16-minute red-flag delay. Only Sadler and Hamlin failed to get back on the track.
“I didn’t even see what happened to start it,” said Hamlin, who won Saturday’s Nationwide Series event at Dover. “All I knew was I came off Turn 2 and I was in the brakes. The spotter was telling me to slow way down and even stop, but I can’t stop any harder than what these brakes will let me. I had (Bobby Labonte) on my (rear) bumper.
