Bud Shootout 2012 Results: Kyle Busch Will Be a Major Force in NASCAR in 2012

If you had any doubts about Kyle Busch’s potential impact in the 2012 Sprint Cup Series, you must be thinking twice after Busch edged defending NASCAR champion Tony Stewart to win Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout.

The exhibition race certainly proved that Busch—who pushed Stewart ahead on the last lap before winning by less than three inches—will be a force to be reckoned with this year, after he staged the closest finish in the history of the event.

In a preview of the Daytona 500, Busch made two exceptional saves to beat Stewart by 0.013 seconds in a race that went to a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish. It wasn’t an easy win for Busch, who spun multiple times but didn’t spin out.

Busch got spun by Jeff Gordon on Lap 74, provoking a crash that left Gordon unscathed, but the same couldn’t be said for Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet.

Busch’s most impressive save came midway through the race, when he collided with Jimmie Johnson. Though Busch turned onto the apron twice, he regained control without correcting—a feat that even impressed Stewart.

“He had to catch it three times before he saved it,” Stewart told USA Today's Nate Ryan. “There’s a lot of guys that wouldn’t have caught that. I’m like, ‘Man, that’s the coolest save I’ve seen in a long time.’”

After the collision, Busch showed his mettle, pushing from eighth to first in the final two laps of the overtime finish—and although Busch's win was certainly impressive amid all of the afternoon’s fireworks, Stewart cautioned against too much excitement. He said the winner of Saturday’s Shootout likely won’t be in the lead on the final lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.“I think history shows that you want to be that second guy, especially here,” Stewart told Fox Sports' Staff. “It just seems like that second spot is kind of the one you want to be in. I’m not ruling out that you can’t win it from being that lead car. You’ve got to plan ahead for it.”

Sore loser or prophet? That remains to be seen, but it's unlikely Busch would've rather been in Stewart's shoes at the end of the day. Now, Busch has some much-needed momentum pushing him into the Daytona 500, and confidence to go with it—after all, he did just beat the reigning champ.

More importantly, though, Busch knows he's capable of regaining control after a rough collision or two, and he knows he can pull off a come-from-behind victory at the very last second. Any exhibition race is good for showing you where you stack up against steep competition, and as far as Busch can see, he's in pretty good shape.

And if Busch can pull off a finish like that two weeks in a row, Stewart might find himself a little less chipper in the wake of defeat.