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Busch Continues to Win
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 11:34 AM EDT
Racin' with Russ
By RUSSELL SCHMIDT
Odds makers wouldn't have given much of a chance on Kyle Busch to win the road race venue at Infineon Raceway after seeing where the Gibbs driver qualified in 30th. The No. 18 Toyota driver said they unloaded as junk, yet between a lucky break in an early pit situation and a car that seemed to come to life as the race wore on, the current Sprint Cup points leader notched his fifth win of the season.
The 23-year-old driver was able to pull away from challengers during several restarts, whether it was Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards or others that came up empty in a quest to the front.
The West coast race started with Jimmie Johnson leading most of the early laps, yet Busch was able to get out front, the benefactor of specific caution flags.
Late in the race, Kevin Harvick overdrove his car, which led to a domino effect of top five cars hitting each other, namely Jamie McMurray into a hapless Tony Stewart.
A possessed Stewart came back from mid-pack to a top 10 finish, but not before using his Toyota as a bulldozer, pushing into Scott Pruett, who in turn pushed into several cars including Stewart's teammate Denny Hamlin...cars spinning on and off the track.
Ordinarily a mid-pack runner, David Gilliland rose to the occasion, falling back on his West Coast series experience to land a second place with Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears wrapping up the top five.
Carl Edwards led briefly and was among the strongest cars, but bad timing with yellows had him work very hard just to come back to a ninth place run.
The latest Sprint Cup results finds Busch extending his points lead over Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr. by more than 100. With five wins, let's remember he would start the Chase with a bonus of 50 points, 10 for each win.
Carl Edwards got up on the wheel at Milwaukee on Saturday night to capture his first Nationwide win in over a year. He did so by gently moving aside leader Clint Bowyer, who took exception to the move in post-race interviews.
Edwards' car was good, it was the first race with new crew chief Drew Blickensdorfer and quite frankly, the buff driver had heard enough of, "when ya gonna win again?" and finally nailed down a win, a little unorthodox, but a win nonetheless. I also found it a little 'pot, kettle' that Bowyer has not won a race in that method ... please.
Edwards' latest win came by besting young Joey Lagano, Bowyer, David Ragan and David Reutimann, which keeps Bowyer atop the standings by 188 over Brad Keselowski.
Johnny Benson had a fairly easy time of winning his latest Craftsman truck race at the Milwaukee Mile. He did it by besting Matt Crafton and first-timer Landon Cassill, age 18. Benson now leads Todd Bodine by 50 and Crafton by a bit more. Long way to go.
Open Wheel News - The Indy Racing League held their latest round of competition at the oval in Iowa. Dan Wheldon wound up at the top of the heap with Hedeki Mutoh besting Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon and A.J. Foyt IV. They'll be in Richmond this weekend.
Across the pond in France, the F-1 set saw Ferrari ace Felipe Massa beat teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Jarno Trulli at Magny-Cours.
From Rumorville - Mark Martin out? In? Latest tidbits from the Cup pits has the seasoned veteran possibly leaving DEI at the end of the season where Aric Almirola will take over full time. What's in store for Mark? Hendrick driver Casey Mears is said to be vacating his No. 5 seat and it appears Mark may fill the bill in a last attempt at full time in Cup and a run at a very elusive title. I'll keep on top of this one? Plausible? Oh yeah, especially with his son announcing he was giving up his racing career for now in favor of more formal education.
Other rumors for next year include a related story involving ARMY leaving DEI and heading for Bill Davis Racing. That move doesn't make any sense to me, but we'll see what happens.
Did you know? Kyle Busch's latest Cup win is his ninth notch in the win column out of 130 starts. It was also his 11th top ten of 2008. The boy is up on the wheel ... now if we could just work on that "attitude" of his.
Sad News Dept - I would be remiss in not mentioning the passing of two-time top fuel dragster champion Scott Kalitta over the weekend. The 46-year-old father of two was a lifelong racer, son of the famed Connie Kalitta, passed away in a nasty funny car wreck in New Jersey on Saturday. Seems like I've been watching Scott race for several decades. Godspeed Scott ... you will be missed.
That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will review the Cupper and Nationwide series action from New Hampshire, the Craftsman trucks competing in Memphis, the IRL cars zipping around RIR in Virginia along with more racing news from around the globe.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@comcast.net
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