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Busch Wins A Bore In Dover
Sunday, 01 June 2008 22:10

 

For the fourth time this year, Kyle Busch bowed to the crowd and took the checkered flag while the smoke from his burnout cleared in the air. Leading the last seventy-four laps, Busch ended what was a boring race with over a 4-second lead over second-place Carl Edwards and third-place Greg Biffle, who was even further back.

 

Tearing through the field in the last hundred miles, Busch pulled away from the Roush Fenway Racing teammates and lapped all but five cars. Busch led four times for a total of 158 laps, to capture to secure the first ever three-race weekend sweep for Toyota. (Scott Speed won Friday's Truck Series race and Denny Hamlin won Saturday's rain-delayed Nationwide event - both in Toyotas.)

 

"It was definitely a great race for us," the 23-year-old driver explained. "We didn't have the car to beat today. Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle were better than us but we made it on the long run as good as they did and we knew if we could get track position and get in front of them that we would be a little bit better."

 

Once Busch got out front, no one had anything for the No. 18 Combos Toyota.  Biffle summed it up by saying, "Clean air is king."

 

"[Busch] kept adjusting on his car, adjusting on his car and at the end he got his car right and was able to drive off and manipulate traffic better than us," Biffle continued. "That's really the key. Whoever could get through traffic could just murder you and at the beginning of the race I could just mow traffic down."

 

Busch was able to take control of the race following green flag pit stops that began on Lap 228. Firing off stops less than 13-seconds each time, Busch was able to get out front in clean air and pull away. "The guys on pit road had a phenomenal day. They got us out front and kept us out front and that's what won it for us here today.

 

"They should enjoy this win. This was their win right here. The crews win," Busch went on to say. "The guys that pitted this thing on pit road definitely won it for us and they are deserving."

 

With over a 5-second lead with five laps to go, Busch pulled up on the lapped car of Paul Menard. The No. 15 was in the initial stages of engine failure and was smoke was beginning to show out of the tailpipes.

 

"The smoke didn?t bother me," Busch pointed out, "it was just the fact that it might blow up - that worried me. I was just trying to get behind him as quickly as I could so that when he laid the oil down I wouldn't be in it."

 

Menard's engine never let go and Busch cruised to victory once again.

 

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver now enjoys a 142-point lead over second-place Jeff Burton in the series standings. Busch also took sole command of the win column for 2008, as well as top-10s.

 

With so much success in almost everything he straps into, the question is "does anyone have anything for this young standout?" For that answer only time will tell, but don't expect the competition to just lie down and take it.