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For the fifth time this season, Kyle Busch bowed before the crowd as the smoke from the burnout rose from the tires. Leading the most laps and surviving a wild final ten laps, Busch earned his first road course victory in seven starts and extended his points lead over Jeff Burton by 103-points.
Starting from the 30th-spot, Busch worked his way through the field early and broke into the top-15 just twenty laps into the race. Pitting on Lap 28, Busch was among the group of ten or so drivers that hit pit road before the first yellow flag of the day flew on Lap 30.
As the leaders came to the attention of their crews under caution, Busch lined up behind Greg Biffle and Juan Pablo Montoya to restart the race in the third-spot. Hungry to lead a lap, Busch was able capitalize on Biffle's slip-up at the top of the hill after the restart and get past the No. 42 Dodge of Montoya for the top spot. Busch maintained the lead until it was time to bring his No. 18 M&M's Toyota to pit road for fuel on Lap 68, bringing the majority of leaders with him. Once again, luck was on the side of the Joe Gibbs Racing team as the yellow flag flew for the second time just one lap later. Again, this brought the leaders to pit road under caution and allowed Busch to make up the valuable track position with ease. With just ten laps to go, Busch had a comfortable four second lead over Jamie McMurray in second-spot. That all went away as David Reutimann's left front tire blew, bringing out the fourth caution of the day. This caution was exactly what McMurray, Tony Stewart and everyone but Busch wanted to see. Bunching the field up right on the back bumper of the No. 18, the race restarted with just six laps to go. Leading them to the green, Busch was able to get a great jump and headed up the hill as it all broke loose behind him. All told, there were three caution flags - including a red flag condition - in the final ten laps, yet the young driver from Las Vegas never let the yellows frustrate him as he kept his cool and focused on the win. "It's just phenomenal that we're able to be here in Victory Lane," Busch explained, "Never on a road course has it happened for me before - in the Cup Series - so this is special. I just couldn't stop celebrating." After disappointing finishes at Pocono and Michigan, many began to question Busch's focus. Running all three series almost week-in and week-out started to take its toll on the 23-year-old driver, but this weekend it was all about the Cup Series as Busch opted out of the Nationwide and Truck Series events in Milwaukee. For Busch, the attention should not be on his racing schedule, but the work going on back at the shop and in the garage. "What we need to be talking about is all these boys working so hard," Busch said from Victory Lane. Unhappy with his car at the start of the weekend, Busch credited his crew with getting the team where it needed to be on Sunday. "This is awesome, this is super big for this race team," said crew chief Steve Addington. "It just builds confidence in the driver to believe in this race team, what we can take when we start a bad weekend and we can pull through, work together and take our information and apply it to the race car and it works." Busch's fifth victory of 2008, this win proves the newest member of JGR has no limits. No matter what track, what series or what type of race he is running, Busch will always be a factor in the end. So far this year, Busch has had success on just about every type of track there is - Atlanta, Talladega, Darlington, Dover and now Infineon.
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