After Kyle Busch ran out of fuel with less than three laps to go at Texas Motor Speedway older brother, Kurt Busch, just smiled and cruised to his second win of the year. He drove his Dodge in a reverse victory lap to celebrate his first win in 29 races. His almost 26-second margin victory was the largest since 1993.
Kyle Busch had led the last 232 of the 334 laps, but, fuel calculations or failure to save fuel cost him a win in his first race with new crew chief Dave Rogers. “I saw him peel off,” Kurt said “I wanted to get to him,” but he still had to save fuel. “I was confident in my guys’ numbers (calculation).” Then he added, “It’s the first time we raced each other for the win. It’s bittersweet because we took the weekend in Cup. (Kyle had won the Truck race on Friday night and Nationwide race on Saturday and was looking for an unprecedented sweep of all three NASCAR races). We raced him hard, it felt like at old times. To do it at Cup level, it was fun.” The bigger story was the lap three crash of points’ leader Jimmie Johnson. Last year, he came into race with 184 point lead and left with 106 point lead. This year his 183 point lead shrunk to 73 points over Mark Martin who finished fourth behind the Toyota of Denny Hamlin and the Ford of Matt Kenseth. Johnson’s day turned for the worse after David Reutimann tapped the right rear of Hornish’s Dodge in turn two getting loose into Johnson who slams the wall with heavy damage. He limped back into the garage for one hour and eight minute repair while he remained in the cockpit. “It’s still a respectable lead, a good position,” Johnson said, reluctantly adding, “ I hate we gave up all these points. I wish he’d (Hornish) wait a little longer. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We have two more races, (but) we’re still in a great position. “That (repaired) car was not a fun car to drive. I just wish the 77 (Hornish) would have run the low line, all I know I got clobbered from the side by him.” But Hornish, who did spin alone later, was innocent. He explained, “I got hit by Reutimann and was trying to catch it and got into Jimmie, I feel bad for him because I didn’t want to take him out. I was doing everything I could just to try to keep things moving forward.” There was another big crash on lap eliminating Carl Edwards and Juan Pablo Montoya. The ex-Formula One driver got loose in turn two where most crashes occurred today. Montoya got loose into Edwards and they crashed. Jeff Gordon spun without major damage avoiding them. Then the two drivers blamed each other. Montoya said “It’s just close racing he got me loose (Carl Edwards).” And Edwards answered, “I ran beside Juan and I gave a little more room than I had before it looked like he almost had it saved. I didn’t expect it, especially from Juan. He’s got great car control.” Hamlin who failed to finish last week in Talladega due to a blown engine had pit stop problems which caused him to save fuel, but, got him home when others ran out. Johnson, hoping to clinch the title next week in Phoenix, will likely have to wait until the season finale in Homestead, instead. “There’s still an ouch to it,” said Johnson. “It could take place at the start the next weekend. As we saw today, anything can happen.” Pole sitter Jeff Gordon struggled all day to finish fifth. He’s third in the points, 112 behind Johnson. NOTE- Kurt Busch earned a million dollar prize for Michael McGee, winner of race sponsor Dickies American Worker of the Year context, who picked Busch to win the race.
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