No extra mile was needed for Kurt Busch to win this one.
With skies threatening, Busch was in the right place at the right time as he stayed out on the track to win the rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Although Busch was not immediately declared the winner by NASCAR, he was given the victory shortly thereafter.
In a race that Tony Stewart dominated, Busch pitted early for fuel in an effort to make it to the front in case NASCAR shortened the race. The gamble paid off.
“(Crew chief) Pat (Tryson) made a great call and we were able to make it Victory Lane,” Busch said.
The victory, Busch’s first of the season, was the 18th of his career and third “Magic Mile” win. He also has consecutive top-five finishes.
Stewart, who led a race-high 132 laps on the 1.058-mile oval, held off a challenge from two-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson late in the 301-lap race and appeared on the way to his first victory since August at Watkins Glen, N.Y. But Stewart and most of the other drivers who had been racing at the front of the pack did not have enough gas to get to the end.
On lap 271, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had been in the top 10 all day, started toward pit road and was hit from behind by Jamie McMurray, who then spun into David Ragan, bringing out a caution.
Stewart and the rest of the front-runners pitted under the yellow flag, while Busch and seven other drivers who had pitted more recently than the leaders, stayed on track.
The race restarted on lap 279, but there was another crash on lap 280, with Clint Bowyer and rookie Sam Hornish Jr. crashing, then Juan Pablo Montoya slamming into series points leader Kyle Busch under the ensuing caution flag. Montoya was later assessed a two-lap penalty by NASCAR for rough driving and finished 32nd.
The rain that had been threatening for much of the afternoon began falling moments later and, moments after the cars were red-flagged onto pit lane just before completing lap 285, NASCAR called the race, leaving Busch on top, ahead of Michael Waltrip, J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr., Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears, all of whom had stayed on track during the previous caution.
Stewart took a while getting out of his car and could hardly believe his fate.
“This is the worst string of bad luck we’ve ever seen, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Stewart, who finished 13th and is 9th in the driver standings. “There’s a percentage of this industry that’s called luck, and you can’t change it.”
Besides trying to give Busch a faster car to drive, his Penske Racing crew chief, Pat Tryson, had been working on improving Busch’s gas mileage.
“Sometimes, everything goes your way,” Tryson said. “Today was one of those days. We’ve been working real hard. So that helped, too.”
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