Kyle Busch In Terrific Position For Championship Chase
Jul 07, 2008
CIA Stock Photo, Inc.
“Kyle’s winning all these races, and he’s really setting himself up for a great start to the chase.
“They’re doing it right … and it’s going to be hard for the rest of us.” Carl Edwards said.
With wins at Atlanta, Talladega, Darlington, Dover, Sonoma, Daytona now, and Mexico City, although that doesn’t count in the Sprint Cup standings, Busch, 23, has made a very strong case that he’s the man to beat for the title once the championship chase kicks off in September, that Toyota is favored to beat Chevy, Dodge and Ford in the title race.
The numbers Toyota teams are posting are amazing. And Busch is 182 points ahead of second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.
However, Busch could have been beaten Saturday night. Chevy’s Jeff Gordon and teammate Earnhardt had the better cars, and they were running together, sandwiching Busch down the stretch.
But Gordon and Earnhardt both found ways to lose, and Busch took advantage of their mistakes.
Still, it took a few moments after the caution-flag ending for NASCAR to confirm Busch was the winner over Edwards. They were side by side, in an impressive stretch fight that could have gone either way, depending on who was doing what right behind them. And the drivers right behind them—Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch—didn’t really have a good game plan, either.
It was a strange ending, an unusual final 100 miles, with many cautions for driver mistakes. But then that’s exactly what Edwards predicted—that frustrated drivers would be taking it all out on each other. And that will likely be the case too at Chicago, this week’s NASCAR stop.
