Kurt Busch held off a challenge by Jamie McMurray to win back-to-back Sprint Cup races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
"It's just a dream weekend that we've had starting last Saturday night," said Busch referring to his million dollar win in NASCAR's non-points All-Star race. "To win the 600 and All Star back to back, this is something that will be front and center in Roger's NASCAR trophy case," he added.
The race came down to a race off victory road after the final pit stop. Jamie McMurray had a two-second lead, but when yellow came out on lap 377 for Marcos Ambrose' crash the two leaders came in for two tires. Busch's crew got him out first. Busch, who drove a Dodge for Roger Penske, also denied Chip Ganassi, who co-owned McMurray's Chevrolet the unique honor of winning 1,100 miles of racing in one day after Ganassi's IndyCar driver,Dario Franchitti, won the Indy 500 that afternoon. McMurray in a sportsman-like gesture congratulated Busch in victory lane. "The two individuals in the car and the two individuals owning the cars have a lot of respect for each other," the race winner added. "I'm speechless with the fact that we swept both races. ... McMurray kept us honest. He was right there at the end. It wasn't like we faded back into the pack. He just separated himself from the pack and came and got us. He taught me a couple things about my line. I needed to adjust it, and it helped us stay out in front of him at the end." McMurray admitted that the last pit stop was the key to the race when he said "You know, I knew whoever came out ahead on that last pit stop between Kurt and I, if somebody didn't screw up, that would be the race winner. It would take me too many laps to run Kurt down. You get within 10 or 12 car lengths, you stall out. I just didn't have enough time in the end. Kyle Busch took third in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota but was confronted by an angry Jeff Burton after the race. "Kyle made it three-wide on the restart, trying to make something happen, which I don't have a problem with," Burton said. "So he runs into me and cuts my left-rear tire. Then I have a problem with it." In response the younger Busch brother said "I don't know what I could have done to have made that work without touching. His teammate, the 33 (Clint Bowyer) made me three-wide getting into (turn) one. I held it as tight as I could on the 33 trying to stay off the 31 (Jeff Burton). I guess all that nice respect stuff that he talked about earlier this week is out the window." Notable - Jimmie Johnson crashed out of the race. Kevin Harvick continues to be the series points' leader.
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