Kurt Busch Rallies Back to Win Dover

Racin’ with Russ—Kurt Busch has been complaining a lot about his car ‘going away’ during the later stages of most races, but Sunday’s afternoon’s win at the tough Monster Mile in Dover proved the team could dial their driver in to victory lane. Busch’s latest win, his second on the year came at a good time after a dismal finish last week in New Hampshire. Even sweeter for the elder Busch brother was besting his arch nemesis Jimmie Johnson over the final quarter of the race.

Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth capped the top five. Did Busch have the fastest car on the day? Once again, probably not, as Carl Edwards had the big horse, but a speeding ticket on pit lane mid-race cost the Ford driver a lot of track space back to 25th and two laps down. The race began with Martin Truex Jr on the pole, but the NJ driver’s car went away quickly as Edwards and Johnson led the lion’s share of laps en route to top finishes.

Kurt Busch was among the leaders during the day and jumped to the point after a late race re-start found his Dodge zipping by Johnson’s Chevy for the lead and managed to hold off all chargers to the end, notching his 23rd career victory.

Note: Coming into this week’s Sprint Cup race was two-time winner Tony Stewart as the Chase points leader.

What a difference a week makes as he and teammate Ryan Newman struggled all day just to finish two laps down in the mid-20’s. Stewart now sits nine points out of first in third spot. Jeff Gordon practiced well, but started deep in the pack and finished a disappointing 12th, dropping four spots to ninth in the standings. Chase-wise, 10th place finisher Kevin Harvick is tied with Edwards for the lead with Stewart and Kurt Busch tied for third and Johnson in fifth, just 13 points back. 

Bringing up the back of the pack is Denny Hamlin (12th - 68) and Newman (11th - 41), both of whom I’ve dubbed the leaders of the stick a fork in my shot at the title pack. Dale Earnhardt Jr is knocking on the same club door with another dismal finish (25th) and 34 points back in 10th in the Chase.

Nationwide - Carl Edwards led all but 20 laps of this Nationwide event at Dover with a very strong Ford Mustang. The Roush-Fenway driver bested the likes of Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne and points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. With five races remaining, Stenhouse leads Elliott Sadler by 22 markers.

Truckin’ - Austin Dillon started on the pole, led a lot of laps, but it was the wily veteran Ron Hornaday picking up his record 50th truck win since competing in this series since 1995. A better pit strategy over Dillon’s last stop allowed Hornaday to get that latest checkers over Dillon, James Buescher, Nelson Piquet and Brian Ickler. The results finds Dillon just three points over Buescher in the big picture.

IndyCar - Will Power started the weekend with the points lead and the pole and managed to lead the opening laps well over second place Dario Franchitti. But a pit road incident damaged the car and opened the door for Franchitti to lead much of the race while Power’s team scrambled to recover, only to watch first time winner Ed Carpenter barely edge Franchitti for the win with Scott Dixon third. Franchitti left Kentucky Speedway with an 18 point lead over Power with only one oval race remaining on the schedule.

From Rumorville - Looks like the rumors of where Clint Bowyer will wind up for next year will be silenced with a press conference this week from Waltrip Motorsports. JRG Dougherty’s Bobby Labonte will more than likely be a satellite team of MWR away from the main headquarters. I see the No. 33 Childress car being slightly mothballed until Childress’ grandson Austin needs a temporary Cup ride for next year and a full-time deal for 2013 and beyond. Nepotism is alive and well in NASCAR—still no word on what will happen with Team Red Bull’s Toyotas for next year. The most promising conversations have been with ex-F-1 driver Jacque Villenueve buying and driving one of the cars.

That’s it for this week. Next week, RWR will review the Cupper and Nationwide results from the Kansas, along with more racing action from around the globe. Questions?