Kyle Busch wins first COT race by beating Burton, Gordon source: nascar.com Complete results at Nascar.com Kyle Busch held off teammate Jeff Gordon on a restart, then beat Jeff Burton in a drag race to the finish line to win the first Car of Tomorrow race Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch took the lead with 16 laps to go on a smooth pass around Denny Hamlin in thick traffic and stayed there through a pair of cautions. Busch had driven away from the competition when the 15th and final caution set up a green-white-checkered finish. With Busch and Gordon running 1-2 at the restart, the two plotted their own strategy with their respective crew chiefs. "Well, good job guys," Busch sighed at the final caution. "We'll do what we can. I can't promise you anything." "He'll be nice," crew chief Alan Gustafson said. "He'll play nice." It didn't sound that way on Gordon's channel. "Tell that 5, if I get a fender underneath him, he better think about the fact that we're teammates," Gordon said. "If I don't get a fender underneath him, I won't move him out of the way." It never mattered, though, as Burton jumped past Gordon on the restart and quickly pulled onto Busch's rear bumper. Burton looked low and Busch threw a block, then he went high and Busch blocked that, too. Burton finally pulled alongside Busch as they closed in on the finish line, but Busch nipped him at the flag for his first Nextel Cup victory on a short track. Both drivers could have spun Busch to get past him, and the 21-year-old appreciated the veterans for racing him clean. "Without Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton behind me, I never would have won this race," Busch said.
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