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Kyle Busch Tames the Monster Mile
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DOVER, DE (June 1, 2008) – Kyle Busch kicked off NASCAR’s summer swing with a win in the Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Busch and the No. 18 Combos® Team started the race from the third position and never ran worse than fourth all day before walking away with their fourth win of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
Busch started the race in the third position but a tight-handling race car prevented him from being in a position to overtake the lead cars. Greg Biffle set a fast pace in the early stages of the 400-mile event, lapping all the way to the top 25 cars within the first 100 laps.
The No. 18 Combos Team adjusted on their Toyota Camry throughout the race, finally achieving a more free-handling condition for Busch as the race wound down. By the halfway point in the race, Busch and driver Carl Edwards were the ones pacing the field and continuing to place lead lap cars in the lap-down category.
Busch took the lead of the race after a stellar green-flag pit stop by his crew on lap 237. The pit crew continued its good work during another round of green-flag pit stops on lap 317, helping Busch to not only retain the lead but also open up a nearly five-second lead on the second-place car of Edwards. By the time the race was over, Busch had led 158 laps en route to his fourth win of the 2008 Sprint Cup Series season.
“It was definitely a great race for us,” Busch said. “I’ve got to thank Combos and JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and all of the guys from Toyota that work on this thing and just do a phenomenal job for us. We probably didn’t have the car to beat today. Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle were better than us but we made it on the long run as good as they did and we knew if we could get track position and get in front of them that we would be a little bit better.”
“The guys on pit road had a phenomenal day,” Busch continued. “They got us out front and kept us out front and that’s what won it for us here today. They (pit crew) should enjoy this win. This is their win right here. I just drove a race car and drove a race where I just needed to pace myself and just run around the bottom every lap and not really move around much. The guys that pitted this thing on pit road definitely won it for us and they are deserving of this win.”
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While the good times continued to roll for the No. 18 Combos Team, both the No. 20 Home Depot and No. 11 FedEx Teams ran directly into misfortune on Sunday. The biggest incident of the 400-lap event took place early on lap 18 when Elliott Sadler was hit from behind and sent spinning into the outside retaining wall in turn two. With nowhere to go, Tony Stewart slid straight into Sadler which triggered a domino-effect accident, collecting a handful of other cars, including Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 FedEx Toyota. The damage to Hamlin’s Toyota prevented him from finishing the race and as a result he was scored with a 43rd-place finish. Stewart was able to return to competition after major repairs and he finished the day in 41st position.
Behind Kyle Busch’s fourth win of the year, Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth finished second, third and fourth. Veteran driver Jeff Gordon finished in the fifth spot.
With his win in the Best Buy 400, Busch extended his lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship point standings. Busch now owns a 142-point lead over Jeff Burton. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. remains in third while Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle round out the top five in the point standings, respectively.
The summer stretch of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule continues next weekend at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway. The Pocono 500 is scheduled for a 2 p.m. EDT start. TNT picks up the live television coverage of Sprint Cup Series competition this weekend. To celebrate, TNT will broadcast a 1.5-hour pre-race show that is scheduled for a 12:30 p.m. EDT start. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) will provide live radio coverage.