Average Speed of Race Winner: 74.774 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 55 Mins, 39 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.532 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 21 laps.
Lead Changes: 9 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: A. Allmendinger 0; Kurt Busch 1-22; A. Allmendinger 23; C. Bowyer 24-27; Kyle Busch 28-39; Kurt Busch 40-52; J. Johnson 53-66; Kurt Busch 67-74; J. Johnson 75-105; Kyle Busch 106-110.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Johnson 2 times for 45 laps; Kurt Busch 3 times for 43 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 17 laps; C. Bowyer 1 time for 4 laps; A. Allmendinger 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 16 in Points: K. Harvick – 616; M. Truex Jr. – 563; J. Logano – 559; J. Johnson – 546; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 545; B. Keselowski – 505; J. Mcmurray – 497; K. Kahne – 483; M. Kenseth – 479; Kurt Busch – 469; J. Gordon – 462; P. Menard – 452; D. Hamlin – 438; R. Newman – 435; A. Almirola – 431; C. Bowyer – 430.
SONOMA, Calif. – Check the box. Kyle Busch has a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.
That simple statement hardly plumbs the depth of emotion Kyle Busch was feeling after winning Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
In the first-ever 1-2 finish in the series by the Busch brothers, Kyle Busch beat Kurt Busch to the finish line by .532 seconds to win for the first time since returning from an 11-race absence because of a broken right leg and left foot sustained in a Feb. 21 accident at Daytona International Speedway.
“First Busch brothers 1-2, boys,” Kyle Busch exulted on his radio after taking the checkered flag. “Mom and Dad should be proud.”
On Lap 106 of 110, Kyle Busch muscled Jimmie Johnson out of the way and took the lead on the way to his second victory at the 1.99-mile road course and the 30th of his career. Johnson had stayed out on old tires while Busch joined a parade to pit road for new rubber after the left rear wheel assembly separated from Casey Mears Chevrolet to cause the fifth and final caution of the race on Lap 99.
Johnson led the field to a restart on Lap 104, but the cars with fresh tires soon asserted their superiority, with Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, reigning series champion Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano all following Kyle Busch in putting the six-time champion behind them.
Kyle Busch restarted seventh and got past Bowyer, the eventual third-place finisher, soon thereafter in heavy traffic at the top of the hill in Turn 2. Two laps later, he passed Johnson for the lead.
All told, 46 races had passed since Kyle Busch last went to Victory Lane in NASCAR’s premier series, including the 11 he missed because of the Daytona injuries. Busch last won at Fontana, Calif., on Mar. 23, 2014. The victory extends his streak of winning at least one race per year to 11 years.
More significant, the triumph gives Busch the first element he needs to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Busch also must finish in the top 30 in the series standings after 26 races in order to maintain his eligibility for NASCAR’s playoff.
With the win, Busch gained two positions in the standings to 37th, 136 points behind 30th-place Cole Whit with 10 races left in the regular season.
“Yeah, we have our work cut out for us,” he said. “We knew we did in the beginning (after returning to competition five races ago), and I knew we put us in the hole in points. It’s unfortunate that we’ve had a couple crashes (in recent events at Dover and Michigan).
“As much as I can do, that’s what we’re going to do. Adam Stevens, this is his first win as a Cup crew chief, so this is pretty special. My wife is here, she flew in this morning. So it’s awesome to have her with us today. Brexton (Busch’s newborn son) is at home, though. He didn’t want to fly six hours, so we let him stay at home this time. This is so cool.”
Kurt Busch led a race-high 43 laps but spent too much time getting past Bowyer in the closing laps to have a realistic chance to catch his brother. But his disappointment at finishing second was trumped by empathy for the ordeal Kyle has endured this season.
“It was emotional,” Kurt Busch acknowledged. “I know he’s been through quite a bit; to have your leg broken, your foot shattered, to never (before) be injured and out of the car … I don’t know what that feels like, but I do know that working with Tony Stewart and having him go through rehab, rehab is very difficult, and it is a mental challenge.
“And I’m very proud of Kyle for what he’s done to get back in the car as soon as he did get back in the car, and then to be competitive at a track with hard, hard braking and to use his left foot to drive to victory lane, I’m very proud of him.”
Then Kurt’s competitive juices took over, and he added, tongue-in-cheek, “I just wish I could have one more lap to get to his bumper, but I think he didn’t want to see an extra lap.”
during the NASCAR XFINITY Series Great Clips 250 Benefiting Paralyzed Veterans of America at Michigan International Speedway on June 13, 2015 in Brooklyn, Michigan.
June 13, 2015
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
BROOKLYN, Mich. – In his first NASCAR XFINITY Series race back from a broken right leg and left foot, Kyle Busch proved conclusively that he hasn’t lost a step.
Taking advantage of contact between the Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick and the Ford of polesitter Joey Logano—as those two drivers were battling for the lead—Busch passed Chase Elliott for the lead on lap 122 of 125 and held on to win Saturday’s Great Clips 250 at Michigan International Speedway.
Busch’s series-best 71st victory, his second at the two-mile track, came nearly two months after the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was sidelined by a brutal Feb. 21 crash into a concrete wall in Turn 1 at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch returned to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series action in the Sprint All-Star Race in May, but deferred his XFINITY Series comeback to Saturday’s race at Michigan.
“It feels good,” Busch said after climbing from his car in Victory Lane. “This is only a preliminary for what we’ve got to do on Sundays (in the Sprint Cup Series), but it’s a start. You’ve got to start somewhere, right?
“I can’t say enough about this team. (Crew chief) Chris Gayle did an awesome job today with this race car. We messed up a little bit today on a pit call, but we made up for it. Hard racing today, man. It was crazy, the side-by-side action we got here. The track’s kind of widening out, lending itself to some cool action.”
After a restart on Lap 116, the race unraveled for Logano and Harvick. As the two drivers fought for the lead in Turn 3, with Logano to the outside, Harvick’s Chevrolet got loose and washed up the track into Logano’s Ford.
The right rear of Logano’s Ford brushed the outside wall, but both drivers were able to continue, albeit after losing several positions. Harvick finished sixth, and Logano, who led a race-high 54 laps came home seventh.
Harvick took responsibility for the incident.
“I just got loose underneath him,” Harvick explained. “I had a huge run down the back straightaway. That late in the race, I figured I need to try to win the race, and I got in there, and he was on the outside of me, but it was too late to not have contact at that point.
“So totally my fault. I just got loose under him going for the win.”
Harvick’s mea culpa was little consolation for Logano, who had the race’s dominant car for most of the day.
“We were racing for a win here, and it just seems like he drove in there pretty hard trying to slide me,” Logano said. “I drove up in there, too, and he got loose underneath me and got into my left rear and up we both went into the race track.
“It’s unfortunate. I had a fast Discount Tire Ford, obviously the winning car, leading a ton of laps and up there at the end of the race. I was racing hard, and he just drove over his head a little bit.”
Despite his runner-up finish, Elliott left Michigan disappointed he couldn’t find a way to keep Busch behind him in the closing laps.
“I’ll be honest—second does not feel good, to me at least,” Elliott said. “I thought we had a car good enough to compete today… We finally got ourselves in position there. We had two even-numbered restarts where we were six and fourth (in the preferred outside lane) that put us in position there to have an opportunity on that last restart.
“Obviously, the 22 (Logano) would have been really hard to beat, and Kevin got into him by accident and moved him up the race track. Obviously, that opened up our opportunity to have a shot at the win… (Kyle) is really good at what he does, and I don’t really have an excuse for it. So, yeah, he outran me.”
Kyle Larson finished third, followed by Chris Buescher, who extended his series lead to 25 points over Ty Dillon, who came home 13th. Elliott is third in the standings, 35 points back.
NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – Great Clips 250 benefiting Paralyzed Veterans of America
Michigan International Speedway
Brooklyn, Michigan
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Average Speed of Race Winner: 132.567 mph.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 53 Mins, 09 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.477 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 26 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: J. Logano(i) 1-9; B. Scott 10-15; K. Busch(i) 16-29; B. Scott 30-33; K. Busch(i) 34-42; J. Logano(i) 43-73; P. Menard(i) 74-78; C. Buescher 79-88; A. Almirola(i) 89; J. Logano(i) 90-92; C. Buescher 93-105; J. Logano(i) 106-116; C. Elliott 117-121; K. Busch(i) 122-125.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Logano(i) 4 times for 54 laps; K. Busch(i) 3 times for 27 laps; C. Buescher 2 times for 23 laps; B. Scott 2 times for 10 laps; P. Menard(i) 1 time for 5 laps; C. Elliott 1 time for 5 laps; A. Almirola(i) 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: C. Buescher – 489; T. Dillon – 464; C. Elliott – 454; R. Smith – 434; D. Wallace Jr. # – 428; E. Sadler – 414; B. Scott – 394; R. Reed – 378; B. Gaughan – 378; D. Suarez # – 369.
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Kyle Busch to Remain Eligible for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship
Driver Granted Waiver from Having to Compete in All Championship Events
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 13, 2015) – NASCAR announced today that Kyle Busch will remain eligible to compete for the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Busch will qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by meeting all requirements of eligibility excluding Rule 17.6.2.1.a, which requires a driver to start all Championship Events of the current season. Continue reading “Kyle Busch Can Make The Chase With a Win, Top 30 in points”
The Final Lap Weekly 