Busch wins at Michigan defeating Truex
Kurt Busch, after the much dismaying postponement of the Tuesday NASCAR event at Michigan International Speedway due to the rain, won yet again. This is his second victory in three races so far.After winning the 2004 Cup, this champion further strengthened his place in the 12 man line for the coming event, after defeating Martin Truex Jr in the last laps and won the 17th race of his career.
The weather problems continued to dog the race originally scheduled on Sunday, the rain made sure that the cars could not compete, but on Tuesday, the race was run without further ado after the first 10 laps were completed.
A last minute spin with just 2 laps to go by Greg Biffle sent the event into overtime. At the wheel of a dodge for penske racing, Busch expertly pulled away from the DEI Chevrolet driven by Truex, after the green flag was waved for a sprint of 2 lap on lap 202.
Given two cautions in the ending 13 laps, Busch stayed on with frazzled tires and made two excellent restarts, even though some of his competitors got new rubber.
Thanking the fans, Busch said “It was tough,” “You know, I’ve got to thank the fans who stuck it out on a Tuesday to see a green-white-checker finish. We put it on for them here at the end, all the restarts, all of the guys on different strategy, it really was a tough, hard-fought win.”
The other racers finished with the current champion Jimmie Johnson at third, after which came Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Dave Blaney, Carl Edwards, Brian Vickers, Bobby Labonte and Tony Steward.
Busch is currently 12, still a good 33 points behind Truex, and has only three races remaining until the flagging off of the 10 race playoff.
The Pocono win was a break for Busch after a string of 51 winless races “This was a great win,” said Busch, “It just backs up what we did at Pocono.”
“I wanted it so bad I could taste it back there behind Kurt,” Truex said. “I felt like last time we probably had the car to beat. This time we didn’t. This time we had good strategy and a good car there at the end.”
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