Las Vegas, NV (Sports Network) - Kyle Busch beat the odds at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway Sunday as he won the Shelby 427 after starting the race from the rear
of the field due to an engine change. Busch, a native of Las Vegas, held off
Richard Childress Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton in a three-lap
shootout to the finish to capture his first win at his hometrack.
Although Busch won the pole Friday, he was forced to start in the back after
his team replaced the motor in the No.18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Busch led two laps in the early going when teams pitted under green. He took
command in the late stages when he passed Jeff Burton on lap 227. Busch gave
up the top spot during a late round of stops, but grabbed it for the final
time when he moved ahead of Bowyer with 17 laps to go.
"This is pretty cool," Busch said. "I didn't know exactly what it would mean.
Coming to the checkered flag, there were knots in my stomach. This is probably
as big as the Daytona 500. I said it wasn't going to be, but it is."
After patiently making his way through the field for the most of the race,
Busch had to hold off the leaders on two late-race restarts. When he grabbed
the lead from Bowyer, Paul Menard made contact with Greg Biffle and smacked
the wall on lap 270. Then Jimmie Johnson got loose and spun with the back end
of his car making contact with the wall 10 laps later. The 14th caution, a new
track record, set up the three-lap shootout to the finish.
"The last 25, 30 laps, I was just as nervous as could be, Busch said. "Wasn't
really all that great at hitting my marks. I was hitting them good enough, I
guess. Fortunately we ran that many caution laps there at the end. That
helped, too."
The victory was Busch's 13th in his Sprint Cup Series career and the first for
JGR at Las Vegas.
Bowyer finished second, followed by Burton, David Reutimann, and Bobby
Labonte.
"It feels like a win almost," Bowyer said. "(We) went a lap down, got real
loose early, got that lap back, got run into on a restart, 15 wide, whatever
we were, fixed that, got going back again."
While Busch and fellow Toyota drivers David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, Brian
Vickers and Scott Speed made engine changes earlier in the weekend, Roush
Fenway Racing experienced most of engine woes with their Fords in the 427-mile
race.
On the seventh lap, Matt Kenseth's bid to become the first driver to win
the first three NASCAR Cup Series races of the season quickly went up in smoke
when he blew an engine. Kenseth began experiencing engine trouble during the
first caution when his motor shut off.
"I think it's the first failure we've had in over three years," Kenseth said.
"It's just unfortunate we didn't get to race."
Kenseth, who won at Daytona and California, finished 43rd at Las Vegas.
David Ragan, also from the Roush camp, had his day end early when his engine
expired on lap 74.
"When your pushing the issue and trying to get all the power out of it, you're
going to have things like this happen," Ragan said.
Mark Martin was running in the top-five on lap 122, but a blown engine forced
the veteran driver out of the event.
"It was a very encouraging run, but very disappointing," Martin said.
Martin, who suffered engine failure for the second straight week, ended up
with a 40th-place finish.
Two separate wrecks occurred just before the half-way point with Reed Sorenson
slamming into the wall on lap 138, and Aric Almirola spinning and making
contact with the wall on lap 144. Kasey Kahne and David Reutimann spun while
trying to avoid Almirola.
Michael Waltrip and Denny Hamlin also got loose and made contact with the wall
during the mid-stages.
During a round of green-flag pit stops, Gordon overshot the entrance to pit
road on lap 219. He blew a tire on the following lap. Gordon had to make
several stops during the caution to repair his right-front panel caused by the
blown tire. He rebounded for a sixth-place finish.
Biffle, Vickers, Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top-10.
Gordon, the four-time Cup Series champion, moved atop the point standings. He
holds an 18-point advantage over Bowyer. Kenseth dropped from first to third,
trailing Gordon by 40 markers. With the victory, Busch moved up to sixth in
points (-54).
The series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for next Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.