Busch Doubles up at Bristol
Written by Racin with Russ, Tuesday August 25 2009
Racin’ with Russ
By RUSSELL SCHMIDT
Kyle Busch had not won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race since earlier in the season, way back in early May at Richmond. That all changed late Saturday night when Mr. Personality was able to hold off a very strong Mark Martin to claim his fourth win of the season at the Palace of Pain…Bristol Motor Speedway.
This year’s nighttime version had more bumps and bruises than normal with Martin leading the most laps and probably had the fastest car. But Busch was able to work the traffic with the many cautions playing into his hands as Martin needed a longer run to get ‘hooked up’.
Drivers such as Busch, Martin, Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya, Clint Bowyer, and Kasey Kahne among others needed to escape the Tennessee track relatively unscathed to get in, or stay in the Chase.
Miracle man Marcos Ambrose impressed many by claiming a career best third followed by Biffle and Denny Hamlin. Vickers took a 12th and now is just five behind Busch, who is only 34 out of the Chase in 13th spot.
Kenseth managed a tenth, but sits 12th in the standings and Montoya struggled to a 25th and slipped two spots to ninth in the big picture.
_*Notable:*_ Childress driver Bowyer was not exactly doing cartwheels leaving the track after finishing a disappointing 21st and the idea of making this year’s Chase looks grim.
Dale Earnhardt Jr did have some shining moments among the top five but slipped to ninth at the checkers and remains 21st in the points….maybe next year.
_*Nationwide -*_ Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick appeared to have the fastest cars among the Nationwide set on Friday night leading laps before a lapped car emerged in front of them, taking Busch out in a big way on the backstretch of the ½-mile Bristol track. He was done for the night, handing an opportunity to win for David Ragan and/or Carl Edwards.
Both were running well and when a lapped car block Edwards from progressing through the field, Ragan jumped in and went on to claim his second win of the year.
Edwards took second followed by Brad Keselowski, Harvick and Kenseth.
Roush driver Edwards picked up a bunch of points on Busch with the nights overall results, yet still remains 248 points behind with less than a dozen shows to go.
_*Truckin’ -*_ Kyle Busch kicked off his weekend with a fairly easy truck win at Bristol after putting the brakes on points leader Ron Hornaday’s five race win streak. The Toyota driver moved through the field and into the lead late in the show, taking the point from an impressive performance by Dodge driver Jason White who led the most laps.
The win marked his third of the year, this time besting Matt Crafton, Hornaday, Ryan Newman and Brian Scott. Hornaday is still quite comfortable out front with Crafton second.
_*Open Wheel News -*_ The Indy Racing League competed out West at Infineon Raceway where Dario Franchitti won game, set and match by capturing the pole and the win, his fourth of the season. Ryan Briscoe was close behind at the stripe as was rookie and often wreck-a-rama driver Mike Conway.
Briscoe now heads the standings by only a narrow four points over Franchitti.
Drivers Will Power and Nelson Philippe were both injured during a practice run earlier in the weekend and transferred to a local hospital with fairly serious injuries. They will survive, but months of recovery are ahead.
Across the pond, the Formula One contingent competed in Spain where veteran racer Rubens Barrichello took his first win in over five years. The well received winner led Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen across the finish line.
Points leader Jenson Button wound up sixth and now leads teammate Barrichello by 18 points.
_*From Rumorville -*_ It is sounding more and more as if open wheel darling Danica Patrick will remain in the IRL and exactly where she is right now with Team Andretti. So, for all those NASCAR fans out there worried about the diminutive driver entering the ranks of the taxi-cab set can rest a little easier. Will she ever enter stock car racing? The only reason she has gotten this far in racing is by being female, not her talent or lack there of in racing. She is attractive and marketable….that’s it. What do you think? Drop me a line.
--- Fuel injection in NASCAR? Yes, it appears there are some serious discussions going on for NASCAR to enter the 21st century when it comes to a more modern induction fuel; system. Since the late 1980’s most of the cars and trucks on the planet utilize fuel injection while NASCAR has stuck with the tried and true four barrel carburetor. I do understand their hesitation into this area for fear of resourceful engineers sneaking in some traction control processing, but there are ways to police this. I’d like to see the change.
That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the action from Montreal for the Nationwide series, truck results from Chicagoland along with more racing news from around the globe. The Cupsters take the week off before heading to Atlanta.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@comcast.net
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