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NASCAR’s new “Have at it, boys” approach to racing played a major role in the finish of Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But none of the late-race wrecking seemed to slow Kurt Busch, who got his third career Sprint Cup victory at AMS and his second straight in the spring race.
Busch was cruising at the front, finally having dispatched his chief challenger, Kasey Kahne, when Carl Edwards, running 156 laps in arrears, appeared to use his front bumper to retaliate against Brad Keselowski for a Lap 41 incident between the two of them.
Keselowski’s Dodge flew upside down and into the wall, but he escaped unhurt. Edwards was parked for the remainder of the race and summoned to NASCAR’s mobile office afterward. Atlanta Journal Constitution
“I felt like this year’s battle was much tougher with the competition than last year,” Busch said. “But it’s just because the tires changed a little bit, aerodynamics changed a little bit.
“I’ll tell one thing that changed, and it changed for the better…[crew chief] Steve Addington has taught me how to drive cars different, how to look at them differently. When you want to get up on the wheel for somebody like Steve, good things happen.”
Kenseth finished second, and Juan Pablo Montoya came in third. Kasey Kahne, who won the fall event at Atlanta last September, led the most laps with 144 but settled for a fourth-place run. Paul Menard finished a career-best fifth.
A.J. Allmendinger, Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, who started from the rear in a backup car, Kevin Harvick and Scott Speed completed the top-10. MiamiHerald.com
Busch claimed the 21st victory of his career and his first with crew chief Steve Addington, who joined Penske Racing during the offseason after guiding Busch’s brother, Kyle, to 12 victories in 2008 and ‘09 with Joe Gibbs Racing.
“With Steve Addington, all of his new ideas, I never knew how we could mesh them together and how soon we were able to do it,” Busch said. “Even on those restarts at the end, I just felt like we had the car to beat.”
Pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost the lead on the very first lap but was running near the front when a mysterious tire problem sent him to the pits on Lap 114 under a green flag. He radioed that a tire felt loose, but the crew found it fully inflated after making the change. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the problem, though the No. 88 team was able to rule out another problem with the axle, the issue that ruined Earnhardt’s day at Fontana two weeks ago.
Junior returned to the track just as Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin blew a tire, which sent him spinning through the grass to bring out a caution flag. The unfortunate timing cost Earnhardt dearly; he slipped a lap down and never got back in the mix, though all the trouble at the end boosted him to 15th in the final standings.
His winless streak is now 61 races. Going back farther, Earnhardt has only one win in his last 138 races. NASCAR
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta - Race Results
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