Racing News!
August 31, 2008
Kyle Busch picks up 17th Top 10 of the season at California.
FONTANA, CA (August 31, 2008) – Kyle Busch arrived in California this week looking for a little redemption and looking to capture win number nine, a win that slipped out of his grasp a week earlier in Bristol. Busch battled with an ill-handling car for much of the race. After slipping outside the top-10, he drove his way forward in the late stages of the race to finish seventh in Sunday night’s Pepsi 500 at the Auto Club Speedway. It was his 17th top-10 of the 2008 season.
“We just couldn’t get the car into the race track tonight,” said a frustrated Busch. “It didn’t matter what we did, we just couldn’t get any grip at all. The car got a little better when the sun went down but not enough to even sniff the lead. That 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was on a rail. No one was going to touch him. I appreciate all the hard work the guys put in on this M&M’s team tonight. We’ll just go on to Richmond and try one more time to get a win and grab some more bonus points for the Chase.”
As the green flag waved on Sunday’s race, temperatures were far from the sweltering 100-plus degrees from a year ago. Busch took the green flag from the inside of row six in the 11th position. After getting a good jump on the competition, he quickly drove into the top 10. Almost immediately Busch could feel the car wasn’t where it needed to be with the handling. He radioed in that the front tires weren’t gripping the way they needed to and the rear of the car wasn’t turning. The end result of the condition was that Busch had to wait longer in the middle of the corner to get back to the gas.
Through the first couple of pit stops, crew chief Steve Addington called for wedge and air pressure adjustments. The pit crew even pulled a rubber out of the left rear spring. Nearly one hundred laps into the 250-lap event, Busch still wasn’t happy with the car and complained about many of the same conditions that other competitors were experiencing.
Turn three at the Auto Club Speedway faces west, and one of the main challenges for drivers in the Labor Day race is the blinding effect from the sun as it begins to set. Drivers finally found relief from the sun at about the halfway point in the 500-mile race. As darkness fell upon the speedway, the surface cooled and Busch noticed a difference in his car. It still wasn’t where he wanted it, but he finally felt that he could race harder and be more aggressive.
At the time he was mired back in 17th. As he gained confidence in his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, Busch began to drive towards the front and pick up positions. By lap 168, he was back to 11th and by lap 186 he was back into the top 10. The final caution came on lap 219 and Busch came in for his last pit stop of the night. With a speedy stop, his crew picked up two positions and sent him back out in seventh. Busch would maintain that position for the remainder of the race to finish seventh, his 17th top-10 of the season.
Denny Hamlin helped to solidify his position in the playoffs with one race to go before the Chase. With a second consecutive third-place finish, Hamlin sits 11th in the standings by a 76-point margin over 12th-place Clint Bowyer. Tony Stewart struggled with handling issues on his No. 20 Toyota all race long. From a 14th-place start, Stewart went on to finish 22nd. He dropped two spots in the standings and now sits in eighth.
Jimmie Johnson took a page out of Kyle Busch’s playbook from the previous night’s Nationwide Series race, as he earned his most dominant victory in recent memory. He led 228 out of 250 laps to pick up his third win of the season. Greg Biffle challenged for the lead on a few occasions, but ultimately couldn’t match Johnson’s speed. He went on to finish second. Denny Hamlin finished third, while Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth came home with the fourth- and fifth-place spots, respectively.
Teams travel back east to Richmond International Raceway for the final race before the Chase. The Chevy Rock & Roll 400 is scheduled to begin Saturday, September 6 at 7:30pm EDT. Live television coverage will switch over from ESPN to the ABC network beginning in Richmond and continuing all the way through the Chase for the Sprint Cup
