Sunday, May 03, 2009


"Birthday Boy Sweeps Action Track"

The rains stayed away and the fans who made it to Richmond saw a rootin' tootin' short track special that saw Kyle Busch reverse an early season victory slide with his third win of 2009. It came on his 24th birthday. Busch joins Cale Yarborough as the only two NASCAR drivers to win in the top division on their birthday.
Multiple stories this evening: Jeff Burton looked early like a pinball getting knocked around. He finished 3rd, behind Tony Stewart and Busch. Ryan Newman took a strong 4th, which pleased Stewart--his boss and teammate. Jeff Gordon also showed strength, leading laps and notching an 8th place finish, which put him back into the Sprint Cup point lead over Kurt Busch who dropped to second--10 behind Gordon. Stewart-Haas Racing has been a pleasant surprise with their steady progress toward the top ranks of Sprint Cup teams--pundits predicted the progress but not as quickly.
Denny Hamlin led the most laps, and was on pace for a hometown win. The rule change with lug nuts for this night anyway, flummoxed Hamlin's crew. Hamlin ended the race 14th.
The snapshot with crew chief Steve Addington, Busch and Coach Joe Gibbs came during their post race news conference.
We'll do this again next Saturday night at Darlington Raceway--the "track too tough to tame"--for the Southern 500.

1 comment:

Paul Kaminski said...

The Darlington trip may be put on hold with other business matters.