Kurt Busch’s slick move leads to thrilling victory in wild race at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Kurt Busch celebrates his second straight win in the March race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. // Jeff Robinson, NASCAR Illustrated
HAMPTON, Ga. – The blue and white logo painted across the infield grass along the frontstretch at Atlanta Motor Speedway read: Kobalt Tools 500.
And that’s too bad. Because this race should have been anointed the Bedlam 500. It was racy, it was interesting, and then it got just a little bit insane.
And when it was all over, Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch coasted into the winners’ circle after not only pulling the season’s slickest move, but hanging on for a final restart to beat Matt Kenseth (Roush Fenway Racing), Juan Pablo Montoya (Earnhardt Ganassi Racing) and Kasey Kahne (Richard Petty Motorsports) in a two-lap drag race.
Paul Menard (Richard Petty Motorsports) continued his impressive start to the 2010 season as he completed the top five.
“Our Dodge was set up for being a utility‑type car,” Busch, who won his 21st Cup race, said. “What I mean by that is it was good on long runs, good in the middle runs and good on the short runs.
“We weren't excellent in any area, but good overall with the different stints you have to run on tires.”
Busch pushed his Penske Racing Dodge to the front six times, including several passes for the lead coming off pit road. But when the 2004 Cup champ had to make his move on the track, he never wavered.
Restarting fourth after a dustup between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski that sent the race into overtime, Busch quickly dove between leader Clint Bowyer and Menard as the field headed into Turn 1 to put his blue No. 4 Dodge in front.
Although there was a final caution flag for another wreck, one that collected seven cars, Busch shot away once more and held the lead for the two final laps. He finished 0.482 second ahead of Kenseth. His 129 laps led was second only to Kahne, who led 144 laps before the late cautions found him trying to play catch-up.
“I definitely saw Clint … was cheating up towards the topside to block that top groove,” Busch said of what proved to be the winning pass. “Menard had to block the low lane with Jamie McMurray on the inside. So it worked out perfect that the two were too busy thinking about what they had to do on two tires, [and] we were on the offense. We had four tires.
“The car stuck really good on the restart. We shot that there like a slingshot. I was happy about that move. I was going to look to the high side in [turns] 1 and 2, make it three‑wide, hold it wide open, see what we got. Luck had it where we just split the middle, held it wide open and we cleared those guys.”
The 500-miler went 24 miles past the scheduled distance, with 16 additional laps. There were 11 caution flags, three in the final 52 laps.
The biggest loser in the race was Keselowski, Busch’s teammate. Retaliation by Edwards from an earlier incident resulted in Keselowski flipping on the frontstretch after contact between the two. The Roush Fenway Racing driver was parked for the remainder of the race and earned a visit to the NASCAR hauler afterwards.
Prior to this year, per NASCAR rules, there would have been only one attempt at a green-white-checkered restart, and the race would have been over at that point.
But with multiple attempts now the norm, teams are suddenly faced with varying strategies to get to the front, to stay out front and, in the case this time, to simply survive.
“You have to adjust to no matter what the circumstances are to win these races, no matter if there's a wing on the back, spoiler on the back, no matter if there's multiple green‑white‑checkereds, old tires, new tires, you name it,” Busch said.
“I feel like we won the race outright today. No doubt we did our job on pit road, no doubt we did our job on long runs, and I think we hit the right combination for restarts. That's what I'm most proud of.”
It was the first win for Busch with crew chief Steve Addington, who was crew chief for Busch’s younger brother, Kyle, prior to this season.
“This is the place that I won my first race as a Cup crew chief, and it just happened to be [with] his brother,” Addington said. “That was very special. That was very big. But to be with a new organization, to have the relationship that I've already built in a short period of time with Kurt and this race team, this one's pretty damn special.
“To put it on a measuring stick, I can't, because I feel pretty damn good right now.”
