Joe Gibbs Racing Race Report Presented by Interstate Batteries
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Best Buy 400
Date: June 1, 2008
Event: Best Buy 400 (Round 13 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Dover (Del.) International Speedway (1-mile oval)
Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
JGR Finish: Kyle Busch (Started 3rd, Finished 1st / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
Tony Stewart (Started 22nd, Finished 41st / Accident, completed 199 of 400 laps)
Denny Hamlin (Started 33rd, Finished 43rd / Accident, completed 16 of 400 laps)
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Combos Toyota, led the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) contingent at Dover (Del.) International Speedway by winning Sunday’s Best Buy 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Busch led four times for 158 laps en route to his eighth career Sprint Cup victory, his fourth of the season and his first at Dover.
The win marked JGR’s fifth Sprint Cup win of 2008. Busch’s previous wins came March 9 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, April 27 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and May 10 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Denny Hamlin won March 30 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
The 63rd point-paying Sprint Cup victory for JGR marked the organization’s third weekend sweep of the season, as Hamlin won Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race. The first JGR weekend sweep came at Talladega where Tony Stewart captured the Nationwide Series race while Busch won the Sprint Cup event. The second JGR weekend sweep came at Darlington where Stewart won the Nationwide Series race and Busch triumphed in Sprint Cup.
Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for JGR, finished 41st in the Best Buy 400 after being involved in multi-car accident on lap 17.
Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Kinko’s Toyota for JGR, finished 43rd after getting collected in the same accident as Stewart.
Busch remains the lead JGR driver in the championship point race, as his victory kept him first in the standings after round 13 of 36. Busch increased his margin over second-place Jeff Burton to 142 points. Hamlin and Stewart occupy the ninth and 11th positions, respectively, with both drivers falling in the point standings. Hamlin lost five spots and is 420 points behind Busch. Stewart dropped three spots and is 499 points arrears Busch.
Finishing 4.224 seconds behind Busch in the runner-up slot was Carl Edwards, while Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top-five. Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Burton, Dave Blaney and Jamie McMurray comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were five caution periods for 26 laps, with four drivers failing to finish the 400-lap race. Only six drivers finished on the lead lap.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the June 8 Pocono 500 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 12:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
