Kyle Busch completed a spectacular weekend at Dover International Speedway by cruising easy victories both at Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup and an almost victory at Camping World Truck Series race before late-race fuel pickup problem.However most spectacular was his Sprint victory at Autism Speaks 400 after a strong duel with Jimmie Johnson for the 3/4 of the race who was nailed by a pit-road speeding penalty that dropped him in the back of the field..
Busch, who is now second in points, commented:
"It’s phenomenal. We came out right there at the right point [on the final pit stop]. I think we were going to beat him [Johnson], but I don’t know. The 48 was really, really fast today... I think the race off pit road really won it for us," Busch said, noting that he didn't know if Johnson sped in an attempt to beat him back onto the track, "but that's what I'm going with... I wouldn't say that we psyched Jimmie out. I mean, he's won four championships so he's pretty much been through all the head games in this world... But ... it kind of turned our way [Sunday]. Unfortunately for those guys ... they got busted for speeding and we weren't able to beat them outright and race them around to the end of the race the last 30 laps... But I feel like our car was at least good enough where we could at least challenge them for it, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we could have beat him [Sunday], with or without the penalty. But he had a fast race car all day. It was a fun battle there racing him through the last ... 100 laps or so."
Johnson, the day’s top lap leader and pole sitter was running first and appeared to be quick enough to win the race but he committed a very unusual mistake in the pits during the last round of stops. While Johnson completed his pitstop and was ready to return on track just behind Kyle Busch, NASCAR officials clocked him as too fast leaving pit row, and he had to return to pit road for a pass-through penalty.
That infraction dropped Johnson from a possible win to a lap down racing in 17th place.
"Evidently, I got out of the pits much better than I did the other times. I got nailed. I must have launched much better than before. It’s disappointing to have the day end up like that."
After Johnson’s miscue, Busch ran free in a steady five-second lead as Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton were unable to chase him and actually prefered to stay clean securing their second and third place.
It was an unusually quiet day at the Monster Mile, a concrete track that typically mashes cars with regularity. There were no multi-car accidents, and the caution flag stayed in its holding spot most of the race.
Top five was completed by Denny Hamlin and David Reutimann.
Due to his recent blood clots problems, Brain Vickers stayed out of the race and was replaced by Casey Mears. The racing future of the RedBull's Racing driver still remains uncertain.
