Kurt Busch Lassos A Win In Texas

Thanks to proper fuel mileage from the Miller Lite Dodge crew, Kurt Busch was able to saddle up and take the checkered flag for his first win at Texas Motor Speedway.  Busch won the race at the expense of his little brother, Kyle Busch, running out of gas with just three laps to go.  Busch was leading on lap 264, trying to conserve fuel until he was on the back stretch on lap 331 screaming “I’m out! – coming to you”.  

The elder Busch brother talked about beating his little brother: “I knew what we had for fuel mileage — I was confident in our guys’ numbers,” Kurt Busch said in Victory Lane. They gave me what I needed to win. We were fast, we were playing cat-and-mouse with Kyle on restarts — you know, it’s the first true time that Kyle and I have raced each other hard for a victory like this. For us to come away and knock him off his sweep — he was trying to go for it — it’s bittersweet. I was rooting for him, but at the same time, this is for us.”

The championship hopes of Jimmie Johnson took at turn for the worst on Sunday in the Lone Star State.  Johnson wrecked on just the third lap, as the 00 car of David Reutimann got into the back of the 77 car, driven by Sam Hornish, Jr.  The three time defending champion fought his car and tried to prevent the 48 car from hitting the wall, however, he crashed hard into the inside wall and was in the garage for quite sometime.  He returned on lap 115 and finished a lack luster 38th, taking a major hit in the points. 

Johnson was interviewed after the race and talked about the time he spent in the car, waiting for the 48 crew to put him back on the race track. “Just sat in the car, was thinking through what went on, how I could have done something different,” he said. “[I was] on the outside lane, driving by a couple cars, and I didn’t really even see the 77 get loose. I got clobbered from the side.  “Around I went.  I thought about those things sitting in the pits. Watched the guys, hoped that they could get the car fixed and on track. I could see the televisions, was watching the race. Just kind of paid attention to where the 5  and 24 were on track. I guess after enough time sitting there, I finally calmed down some and caught my breath and relaxed. But the first 20, 30 minutes of that were pretty painful.”

Here’s how they finished for the running of the Dickies 500 at Texas:

Other notable drivers: Kyle Busch (11), Ryan Newman (12), Jeff Gordon (13), Dale Earnhardt Jr (25), Brian Vickers (26), Kasey Kahne (33), Juan Pablo Montoya (37), Jimmie Johnson (38), Carl Edwards (39).

Realistically, drivers four through twelve are out of the chance to become the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion. The championship comes down to the top four drivers!  Thanks to a terrible finish, Mark Martin was able to cut his lead to just 73 points over first place driver Jimmie Johnson. Here are the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standing with just two races to go. Next week, we head out the desert in Phoenix for the running of the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 presented by Pennzoil.