Kyle Busch Makes Last Lap Pass To Secure Another Cup Race Win
Jul 13, 2008
Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR
Looks like the only thing that might slow down Kyle Busch is a tired backtired back.
The Kyle Busch freight train has rolled through Chicagoland and now is steaming toward Indianapolis.
Busch established himself as the clear-cut favorite to win the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in two weeks by making the LifeLock.com 400 Saturday night at Chicagoland Speedway his seventh victory of the Sprint Cup seventh victory of the Sprint Cup season.
For the seventh time this season the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series front-runner took his trademark front-runner took his trademark bow to the crowd following another victory at Saturday’s LifeLock.com 400 at Joliet’s Chicagoland Speedway.
Johnson had gone by Busch with 17 laps remaining in the LifeLock.com 400. But on the restart after the ninth caution, Busch went high on the track at Chicagoland Speedway and got by Johnson and held on for yet another victory.
Busch has 14 victories this season, spanning NASCAR’s three series. He won a Nationwide Series race on the same track Friday night.
And the 23-year-old Busch showed again why he leads the Sprint Cup why he leads the Sprint Cup points race with some great driving at the end.
“It didn’t matter which way he was going to go, I was going the opposite way,” Busch said of the pulsating finish under the lights at the Chicagoland Speedway.
“I pushed Jimmie Johnson to go and was like, ‘Let’s go man, here we go.’ I just had to go to the outside because he was going to block the bottom in Turn 1 and 2.”
Busch finally was able to get by on the fourth turn of the 266th lap and then hold on for the final trip around the 1.5-mile oval.
But it was his aggressive move at the beginning aggressive move at the beginning of restart that was just as important.
Johnson was pulling away after passing Busch and appeared to have the race won. Instead, he remains stuck on one victory this season after winning 10 races a year ago.
“That restart, he timed it just right and rolled up on me,” Johnson saidJohnson said. “I thought I had the better car and could get away from him. For a two-lap shootout, that outside always wins. I didn’t make the best decision.
“But we showed we could beat (Busch). Before that last caution, we were running away from him.”
But without the final yellow, Busch said he would have lost.
“Without that caution the race was over. Jimmy was going to lead us to the checkered flag,” Busch said.
Busch’s biggest problem came after the race when he got stuck in the mud as he tried to do a celebratory drive through the infield grass. That’s been plenty to feel good about all season.
“I don’t believe how good things are going. It’s just been a phenomenal yearphenomenal year. Something just so special,” Busch said.
When Johnson clipped the wall on the final lap, Busch secured the win he didn’t expect.
“I don’t know how I did that,” said Busch, who also won Friday’s Nationwide race. “This is a dream season, man. I just cannot believe this.”
Busch’s celebration was interrupted when his car got stuck in the muddy grassgot stuck in the muddy grass, but he soon freed the car, emerged with checkered flag in hand and took what’s become a near-weekly traditional bow to the mass of fans.
The finish was a disappointment for Johnson, the two-time defending Sprint Cup champion who felt he made a mistake staying on the bottom after the restart. Like Busch, Johnson was looking for his first Sprint Cup win at the track.
Two-time Chicagoland winner Kevin Harvick finished third, followed by Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers.
Instead of taking advantage of the last weekend off before the Sprint Cup schedule goes 17 weeks without a break, Busch plans to head to Kentucky Speedway for this weekend’s truck race. He’ll then run the truck and Nationwide races at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont ahead of the Brickyard.
