Racing News!
September 14, 2008
Busch and Team M&M’S Find Trouble in Loudon
LOUDON, NH (September 14, 2008) ----- To say it was a tough day for Kyle Busch and the No. 18 M&M’S Racing Team at New Hampshire International Speedway on Sunday would be an understatement. A broken sway bar and then a collision took Busch out of contention for the win in the Sylvania 300 and dropped him to eighth in the Chase for the Championship battle.
Busch started from the pole and led the first three laps of the race before Carl Edwards got passed him. The M&M’S Toyota dropped a few more positions through the field and was in the fourth position when Busch came on the radio and reported that something on the car had broken. His diagnosis was that the sway bar had broken.
Busch nursed the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota around the track during the next 18 laps until the competition caution was waved on lap 35. The team had assembled the necessary parts to make repairs to the broken joint bolt on the sway bar. Busch lost a lap during the process and returned to the track as the field was taking the green flag.
The team’s bad day went from bad to worse when on lap 85 when Busch spun off the track and into the grass. As he came back up on the track he was clipped by the No. 26 car of Jamie McMurray. Busch had to make an extended pit stop on pit road while the team made repairs to the rear bumper and deck lid area. He finally returned to competition on lap 90 but he was eight laps down to the leader by the time he made it back onto the track.
The rest of the race continued without issue for Busch and the No. 18 M&M’S Team and he was actually able to make up some positions in the running order as other teams encountered problems. Busch finished the day in 34th when all was said and done and now sits in eighth position, 74 points behind current point leader Carl Edwards.
Greg Biffle picked up the win today – his first of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and used the win to jump from ninth to third in the point standings. He was followed across the finish line by the rest of the top five which included Jimmie Johnson, Edwards, Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr., respectively.
The following is a list of the top-12 drivers in the Chase for the Championship point standings:
1. Carl Edwards 5,220
2. Jimmie Johnson ----
3. Greg Biffle -30
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -50
5. Jeff Burton -50
6. Denny Hamlin -72
7. Tony Stewart -73
8. Kyle Busch -74
9. Clint Bowyer -83
10. Kevin Harvick -86
11. Jeff Gordon -99
12. Matt Kenseth -177
Dover International Speedway hosts the second race in the Chase for the Championship next weekend in Dover, Del. Busch will try to make it a season sweep of the Dover races by winning next Sunday, September 21. The Camping World RV 400 is scheduled for a 2 p.m. EDT start. ABC will provide live television coverage that starts at 1 p.m. while live radio coverage will be provided by the Motor Racing Network (MRN).
