Johnson Wins Record Fourth NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit Geoff Burke / Getty Images for NASCAR

The Brothers Busch won the first four segments of Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but Jimmie Johnson took the one the counted—the 10-lap dash to the finish—and continued to build his legacy, not to mentioned his bank account.

Speeding away from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne after a restart on Lap 81 of 90, Johnson won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series all-star exhibition race for a record fourth time, beating charging Joey Logano to the stripe by 1.722 seconds.

Kyle Busch, who won the second and third segments of 20-laps each, ran third, followed by Kahne and Kurt Busch. The elder Busch brother won the first and fourth segments and was first onto pit road before the final dash but exited fifth with a less-than-stellar pit stop.

Despite changes to his pit crew this week, Johnson’s over-the-wall gang performed an 11-second pit stop that got him out of the pits on the front row, beside Kahne, for the final restart. Ultimately, that made all the difference.

With the victory, Johnson broke a tie with teammate Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for most wins in the non-points race, won his second straight All-Star Race and collected $1 million for his efforts.

“To beat Jeff and Earnhardt, two guys I’ve looked up to my whole life—two massive icons of our sport—this means the world to me,” said Johnson, who started 18th after sliding through his pit box and drawing a penalty for a loose lug nut during Friday’s qualifying session.

“I really didn’t think we had a shot at winning tonight, starting (18th), but we had a great race car and worked our way through there and got the job done. Over time, honestly, it’s just dedication and drive from every member at Hendrick Motorsports, every member on this No. 48 team. We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished, but we know we’ve got to keep pushing harder and pushing one another.”

Kyle Busch thought he had the fastest car, but a slower-than-usual four-tire stop put his No. 18 Toyota on the second row for the final restart.

“We just didn’t get the best pit stop there at the end to get us out on the front row, and when you’re back behind cars, you’re getting beat up on,” Busch said. “It is what it is. We’ll just take this as a good learning day and hopefully bring back some speed like this to the (Coca-Cola) 600 (May 26).”

NASCAR’s luck with weather held Saturday night, with a large enough window to complete the race with just one delay.

With Kurt Busch leading from the outset, NASCAR called a caution because of rain after Lap 8 and red-flagged the race after 13 laps when the shower intensified. The drivers came to pit road, parked in their stalls and waited.

The rain didn’t come soon enough, however, to save reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski. On the second lap, transmission troubles sent his No. 2 Penske Racing Ford to the garage.

“Something just broke in the back half of the drive train, either the transmission or drive shaft gear – I’m not sure which one – but it’s one of those deals, unfortunately,” Keselowski said. “We’ll try to learn from it and move on.”

With Keselowski in the garage, the race resumed after a stoppage of 41 minutes 28 seconds. Kurt Busch pulled away from brother Kyle Busch to win the first 20-lap segment by .751 seconds.

Kyle Busch kept the second segment in the family, pulling away from Clint Bowyer after a restart on Lap 29—after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. bounced off the Turn 4 wall and knocked Mark Martin for a loop through the grass in the quad-oval.

Jamie McMurray led wire-to-wire to win the Sprint Showdown and transfer into the main event. McMurray, who started second, took two tires during the halfway competition caution after 20 laps and pulled away to beat Cup rookie Stenhouse to the finish line by 1.226 seconds.

Stenhouse transferred into the All-Star Race as the second-place finisher. His romantic interest, Danica Patrick, finished ninth in the Showdown but punched her ticket into the All-Star Race as the winner of the Sprint Fan vote.

“Obviously being out front is massive,” McMurray said during the break between the Showdown and the main event. “When I got by (polesitter) Martin (Truex Jr.) at the start of the race… I was trying to take it easy because I didn’t know with the track being green how quickly the tires would fall off, and even running at like 80 percent it was amazing what a difference just being in clean air was.

“I had a really good car in practice (Friday). I thought honestly the 56 (Truex) and I had the two best cars looking at times yesterday, and then the two tire stop was the right call for us. It got us up front.”

McMurray’s words proved prophetic. Being out front for the final 10-lap run was crucial to Johnson’s record run.

Matt Kenseth Surges to Third 2013 Victory at Darlington

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit Rainier Ehrhardt / Getty Images

Unsinkable.

Unsinkable Matt Kenseth capped a banner week for unsinkable Joe Gibbs Racing with a victory in Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway with a substitute crew chief on his pit box—the unsinkable Wally Brown.

The past four days could hardly have been better for JGR, with Wednesday bringing a substantial reduction in penalties on appeal for an engine infraction Apr, 21 at Kansas. On Friday, Gibbs cars ran 1-2-3 in the Nationwide Series race at Darlington, and the organization followed that Saturday with a 1-2 finish from Kenseth and Denny Hamlin in the 11th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season.

Kenseth took the lead from JGR teammate Kyle Busch on Lap 355 of 367 and pulled away to win by 3.155 seconds over Hamlin, as Busch faded to sixth. Hamlin also had much to celebrate in his first full race back from a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebra, sustained during a last-lap crash at Fontana, Calif., in late March.

It was a race of significant numbers. Jeff Gordon finished third in his 700th Cup start, all consecutive. Jimmie Johnson ran fourth and extended his series lead to a massive 44 points over seventh-place finisher Carl Edwards. In a race that saw just four drivers pace the field, Kyle Busch led 265 laps but faded to sixth at the finish, thanks to a cut tire on the final 30-lap green-flag run.

Journeyman Brown won his first race as a Cup crew chief, after serving with four different drivers before his one-week shot on the pit box with Kenseth, who will get regular crew chief Jason Ratcliff back next week at Charlotte after Ratcliff’s six-race suspension for an underweight connecting rod was reduced to one event on appeal.

But the day belonged to Kenseth, whose resilience under trying circumstances was emblematic of the organization he joined this season.

“Honestly, I’ve only dreamed about winning the Southern 500,” said Kenseth, who notched his first victory at Darlington, his third of the season and the 27th of his career. “This to me probably feels bigger than any win in my career. I really feel bad that Jason isn’t here. This is obviously his team and his effort, but Wally did a great job filling in.

“We had a fifth- or sixth-place car, fighting loose, (and) those last two adjustments (on pit road) were just awesome.”

For Hamlin, second place was the best he could have hoped for, given the strength of Kenseth’s car in the closing laps.

“For me, we kept grinding away,” Hamlin said, clearly tired from the effort of his first race back at one of NASCAR racing’s most demanding tracks. “Pit crew picked us up some spots, obviously, throughout the night.

“It was one of those days where we got our car better, pit crew picked us up positions, took us to the most optimum spot we could get to—and that was second.”

From a physical standpoint, Hamlin admitted the race took its toll.

“Really, it’s just like starting your season over,” he said. “To start it back over at Darlington for 500 miles, there’s some muscles that have gotten weak. I’ve gotten pretty sore and tired, mentally tired as well. We’ll have a couple of weeks really to rest until the next long event (Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte), and we’ll be good to go then.”

A caution for Regan Smith’s spin off Turn 2 on Lap 302 of 367—only the second yellow of the race—interrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops. After Juan Pablo Montoya took a free pass as the highest scored lap car, and Harvick availed himself of a wave-around, there were 11 cars on the lead lap for a restart on Lap 309.

By then, Kyle Busch had led 218 laps and had dominated the race ever since he wrested the lead from his brother, polesitter Kurt Busch on Lap 74. But the pit stops on Lap 303 put the lead-lap cars on the edge of their fuel windows.

They need not have worried. On Lap 311, Casey Mears tangled with Kurt Busch and reigning series champion Brad Keselowski off Turn 4 to cause the third caution. All but the top-four cars came to pit road for fuel under the yellow, leaving Kyle Busch, Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Gordon out front on slightly older tires.

Johnson was first off pit road with new tires and quickly moved to third. Busch fended off a challenge from Kahne right after the restart and held a lead of .850 seconds when an accident involving David Reutimann and Josh Wise brought out the fourth caution and gave the lead-lappers a chance to pit for tires.

Kahne briefly took the lead after a restart on Lap 333, but one lap later, Kahne’s Chevy slapped the wall near the apex of Turns 1 and 2 and the race went yellow for the fifth time.

The result was the same. Busch pulled away after the restart and opened a comfortable advantage, this time over Kenseth, only to have Kenseth run him down and pass him on Lap 355.

Out of the Tunnel Podcast Show 48

This week Adam and I welcome a very special guest for the full hour: Stephen Rhodes – a life long short-track racer and 2003 NASCAR Truck series veteran… who just happens to be openly gay.

Stephen talks to us about his start on dirt, transition to asphalt, his time in the Truck Series and his plans to get back into the Truck series for the 2014 Season.

The timing was perfect, as last week, Viv Bernstein’s blog called out NASCAR for being silent after Jason Collins/NBA came out of the closet. We discuss what it’s like for an openly gay driver in the garage and would that affect a driver’s ability to attract sponsors.

And of course, we talk about all the drama from the “Big Two” at Talladega. Plus we all weigh in on if NASCAR will fine Ryan Newman for his post-race comments; questioning if “they” should have restarted the race after the caution.

All that, plus…. what’s up our butts

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David Ragan beats Goliaths in astonishing Cup race at Talladega

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit David Smith / Getty Images for NASCAR

In the type of stunning victory that has typified racing at Talladega Superspeedway since its inception, David Ragan led an extraordinary 1-2 finish for Front Row Motorsports, which had never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race before Sunday.

David Gilliland pushed Ragan, his teammate, to the lead on the final circuit in a green-white checkered-flag finish that took Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 four laps past its scheduled distance of 188 laps. Gilliland came home second, followed by pole sitter Carl Edwards, Michael Waltrip and series leader Jimmie Johnson.

As Ragan put it, two Davids beat the Goliaths of NASCAR racing in one of the sport’s most unlikely finishes ever.

Ragan’s victory followed a massive wreck that took the race to overtime–and to near-darkness, in what truly was truly was a Talladega night. In fact, NASCAR gave the drivers a chance to change their tinted visors for clear ones during the final caution.

Afterwards, Ragan tried to put the win in perspective.

“I can only imagine what it felt like back in 1988 when Mark Martin got that first win for Jack Roush or when Geoff Bodine won that first race for Hendrick Motorsports,” said Ragan, who scored his only Sprint Cup win at Daytona in July 2011, his last season with Jack Roush. “I’m sure it was just as special.

“A lot of these guys have been to Victory Lane in the Sprint Cup Series and late model racing, short tracks, ARCA – all kinds of series – but to do it here at Talladega in 2013, like I said, it’s a true David vs. Goliath story. I couldn’t be more proud to play my own role.”

Ragan restarted 10th and Gilliland 11th for the final two-lap sprint. As the cars raced into Turn 1, they were barely visible from the frontstretch grandstand, but the teammates managed to find each other on the track. For the first time in NASCAR’s new Gen-6 car, Gilliland pushed another car through the corners–to the amazement of Edwards, whose jaw dropped in the post-race news conference as Gilliland described the final two laps.

“We got restarted there, and it was sprinkling, and it was dark and there was (speedy-dry) on the track so it got on the windshield where it was wet but I could see, and I could see David there and he came down,” Gilliland said. “Michael Waltrip was behind me, giving me a good run and just carried a lot of momentum up through there and got hooked up with David and figured he’s got the best chance of anybody sticking together with him out there and just worked our way up there.

“It got real tight getting into (Turn) 3 and 4 with Carl there. I know David was sideways and out of the gas, and Carl was right up on his door, and could have gone a number of ways. But, thankfully I just stayed on his bumper. I pushed him all the way through the corners. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that with this car, with these style of cars, because with these type of cars in practice I’ve pushed people down the back straight and it actually kind of gets underneath that little lip underneath the back bumper cover and I’ve always been kind of scared getting into the corner. As the front car compresses, the back part of the nose doesn’t have anywhere to go because the splitter is already on the racetrack.

“But I just pushed him all the way around there and Carl about stalled out a little bit, and we were just able to carry some good momentum and come home one?two.”

On Lap 183, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tried a four-wide move to the outside, but contact with J.J. Yeley’s car triggered a multicar melee that wiped out Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick and Clint Bowyer, among others.

That set up the two-lap dash in overtime with Matt Kenseth in the lead and Edwards beside him on the front row. Kenseth, who led 142 laps dropped to eighth at the finish.

Michael McDowell blew a tire and hit the wall on Lap 174 to cause the fourth caution of the race and bunch a field that had become segmented during a series of green-flag pit stops that ended on Lap 168. When NASCAR threw the yellow, Johnson led a six-car breakaway that included Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Edwards, Bowyer and Waltrip.

credit Kevin Cox / Getty (click to see full size)

The caution, however, brought 19 other lead-lap cars back into play and the massive wreck at the end of the backstretch changed the game completely.

NASCAR slowed the race on Lap 122 and stopped it after Lap 125 when showers that had been forecast for race day arrived shortly after 3 p.m. ET. Edwards had nosed ahead of Stenhouse moments earlier and was ahead at the last scoring loop the cars crossed before the yellow.

That left the Fords of Edwards, Stenhouse, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski at the front of the field when NASCAR red-flagged the race, forcing drivers and fans to wait and see whether the event would resume.

After a stoppage of 3 hours, 36 minutes, the race restarted after pit stops, and Kenseth quickly surged to the front.

As the cars approached Turn 1 on lap 43, a tap from Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota turned Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 Chevrolet into the outside wall and triggered a wreck that damaged 16 cars, among them the Chevys of Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick, the Toyota of Brian Vickers (after a driver change with Denny Hamlin) and the Ford of Greg Biffle.

“I know I got in the back of the 5 (Kahne), and I guess I was trying to go to the outside of him,” Busch said. ‘But he just moved up in front of me, and I wasn’t expecting it, and I tried to go to the outside of him, and before I could get to the outside of him I got in the back of him.

“I just hate that I caused a hell of a melee for everybody. I hate that. A lot of cars got torn up, and it’s way too early in the race to be doing any of those sorts of moves, whether he made it or I made it. Just I hate it that we all got crashed in that deal.”

Both Kahne and Busch visited the infield care center after the wreck, and both were released in short order.

“I just kind of got shot through the center (of the field) there, just a lot of momentum coming from behind,” Kahne said of the action immediately before the crash. “Felt the No. 18 pushing me, and next thing I know, I was spinning
.
“You just can’t push with these cars. We learned that at Daytona. He was pushing me and spun me in the wall, and then (it) happened again, so that is what it is.”

Kahne said he and Busch didn’t speak in the care center.

“No, I didn’t talk to him,” Kahne said. “I think we both probably understand what happened, and we’ll figure it out from there.”

Notes: Johnson’s margin in the Cup standings over second-place Edwards shrank by two points to 41. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (17th Sunday) is third, 59 points behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate… Paul Menard finished 26th with a sour engine but gained two spots to eighth in the standings because other drivers in Chase-eligible positions had bigger issues… Ragan and Gilliland won a combined $608,261 for their 1-2 finish, a welcome payday for a team run by owner Bob Jenkins predominantly out of his own pocket.

Out of the Tunnel Show 47

This week Adam is back and talking more than ever!

Oh the drama! Fines, Fines, Fines, fights, nut shots, arrests…. oh, and there was also one hell of a race.

All that, plus… What’s up our butts!

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Kevin Harvick Wins Thrilling Richmond Race in Overtime

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit Streeter Lecks / Getty Images for NASCAR

Kevin Harvick sped away on fresh tires to win Sunday night’s Toyota Owners 400 in a green-white-checkered-flag finish at Richmond International Raceway, leaving a grup of drivers with widely divergent emotions in his wake.

Harvick beat Clint Bowyer to the finish line by .343 seconds to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season, his second at Richmond and the 20th of his career.

Joey Logano ran third, Juan Pablo Montoya came home fourth after leading until the final caution, and Jeff Burton finished fifth after staying out on old tires for the final two-lap run that took the event six laps beyond its posted distance.

Harvick came to pit road for tires on Lap 396, after Brian Vickers’ slapped the Turn 3 wall to cause the 11th caution of the race. Harvick’s No. 29 Richard Childress racing Chevrolet made short work of three drivers who had stayed out after the race restarted on lap 405.

Though he lost the chance to break a 94-race drought since his Cup victory at Watkins Glen in August 2010, Montoya was elated just to get a top-five finish after struggling mightily for more than a year.

Not so elated were Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart, who repeatedly swapped shots with their Chevys on the cool-down lap. Stewart was fifth on the final restart but dropped to 18th at the finish after Busch rubbed him out of the racing groove during a two-lap free-for-all that saw prolific contact throughout the field.

Harvick, however was all smiles when he climbed out of his car in Victory Lane.

“My car launched, and I was able to drive it in the first corner and hope for the best down there,” said Harvick, who surged into the lead through Turns 3 and 4 after establishing his position in the first corner on the final restart. “I figured four, eight, 12…how many ever tires that were on the outside of me would be better than none. It all worked out, and here we are.”

The decision to come to pit road for tires under the final caution was a no-brainer, as Harvick and crew chief Gil Martin saw it.

“When the tires fall off almost two seconds, you’ve got to come in and get tires,” he said. “There’s not very many guys that stayed out. It all worked out tonight. We’ve been on the other side of it this year, so to be in Victory Lane is great.”

Bowyer led 113 laps but didn’t have a car that could stay with Harvick at the end.

“We had a good car—we just didn’t have a great car,” Bowyer said. “It seemed like we were just too tight on the throttle. It would quite turn and come up off (the corner). It really got wild there at the end. I was just lucky enough to be on the bottom (for the final restart).

“They started making holes up there in front of me, and the seas parted, and I just followed suit behind Harvick. It was a good run.”

What remained a two-man battle for more than half the race evolved into an unpredictable nexus of varying strategy and unexpected attrition.

When Kyle Busch passed Matt Kenseth for the top spot on Lap 254, that was the first time all evening that a driver other than Kenseth or Bowyer had led a lap. Busch made it stick, leading 39 straight laps under green until Travis Kvapil smacked the wall on Lap 292 to cause the sixth caution of the night.

But brother Kurt Busch won the race off pit road under the yellow and led the field to a restart on Lap 299. Busch held the point during an intense battle against Carl Edwards until NASCAR called the seventh caution on Lap 308 when Kvapil’s car dropped fluid on the track.

Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kenseth and Ryan Newman stayed out under the yellow on 16-lap-old tires. Jimmie Johnson paced the rest of the lead-lap cars to pit road and took two tires. Six laps after a restart on Lap 321, the entire tenor of the race changed dramatically.

After contact with Martin Truex Jr.’s Toyota on the restart, Johnson faded on the restart. Running to the inside of Johnson on entering Turn 1 on Lap 327, Tony Stewart slid sideways into Johnson’s Chevrolet. As Johnson slid to the inside of the track in Turn 2, Kyle Busch’s Toyota nosed into him.

That was just the start of frenetic action at the .75-mile high-speed short track. Montoya led a pack of six cars who stayed out under the caution to a restart on Lap 334, but on Lap 338, a brutal wreck off Turn 2 involving Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers slowed the field again.

One lap after a restart on Lap 344, Truex spun in Turn 3 while battling Kurt Busch in close quarters for the second position. Montoya retained the lead until Brian Vickers’ wreck on Lap 395 set up the overtime.

Notes: Despite Johnson’s troubles, the five-time champion gained ground on his closest pursuers in the standings with a 12th-place finish at RIR. He now leads second-place Carl Edwards (sixth Saturday) by 43 points and Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10th at Richmond) by 46… Reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski finished 33rd on the bottom end of a roller-coaster day that saw him recover from a scrape with the turn 2 wall only to drop a cylinder in the late going.

The Out of the Tunnel Podcast Show 46

This week I am flying solo – Adam is sick and Hannah is still on permanent assignment.

Kenseth and Kahne battle for an almost identical finish to what we saw in Vegas, Kyle and Joey wreck, Happy Harvick isn’t happy and Brad makes a comeback.

All that, plus, the pathetic turnout by The Worstboro Baptist Church, Rutledge Wood wins at Long Beach and Scott Speed wins gold.

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Matt Kenseth holds off charging Kasey Kahne for STP 400 win

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit John Harrelson / Getty Images for NASCAR

Matt Kenseth likened his victory in the STP 400 to a game of musical chairs—you had to be leading when the music stopped.

If you looked at statistics alone, you’d say that Kenseth dominated Sunday at Kansas Speedway in the eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season. After all, Kenseth won the event from the pole and led 163 of the 267 laps.

In reality, Kenseth prevailed in a race of extraordinary strategic complexity, with divergent approaches shuffling and reshuffling the running order until an opportune caution on Lap 218 put Kenseth back in the lead at just the right time.

Nonetheless, it took all of Kenseth’s consummate skill to hold off fast-closing Kasey Kahne, who narrowed what had been a lead of more than one second to .151 seconds at the finish. Jimmie Johnson ran third, followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer.

The victory was Kenseth’s second at Kansas, his second of the season and the 26th of his career. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota has won both races at Kansas since the track was repaved last year.

“It was kind of like musical chairs,” Kenseth said. “You had to be out front when the music stopped. Our car was very fast in clean air. It was reasonable in dirty air, but it wasn’t quite good enough to catch all them guys and pass ‘em (in traffic).

“Thankfully, I had a couple of really crazy-good restarts for some reason and made up some ground and got us back in position.”

Kahne started 27th, but the speed in his No. 5 Chevrolet SS belied the qualifying effort. Kahne’s crew tightened up the handling of his car for the final run, but not quite enough. There was a sense of déjà vu for Kahne, who chased Kenseth to the finish line Mar. 10 at Las Vegas.

“We were very close at the end, battling with Matt,” Kahne said. “Felt like Vegas all over again, just kind of felt like really similar to that in how I could catch him but couldn’t really do anything once I got close. It made my car a little bit looser. So I tried a few things there, and he kind of blocked those spots and went those directions and gained the speed that I (had), and then we were even again.

“It was tough, but we still had a great race.”

Defending Cup champion Brad Keselowski came home sixth, despite sustaining heavy damage to his rear bumper when the field checked up on the first lap.

That damage had far-reaching effects—so much so that it changed the complexion of the race on Lap 218. The rear bumper cover from Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford dislodged, causing the eighth caution—right after Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle had made green-flag pit stops.

But since all lead-lap cars came to pit road under the yellow, those four drivers were able to regain the lead lap through wave-arounds. Kenseth led the field to the restart on Lap 225, with Truex beside him and Hendrick teammates Johnson and Kahne on the second row.

Kenseth pulled away after the restart, and Kahne charged into the second spot. On Lap 236, Johnson passed Truex for the third position. That’s the order in which they ran to the finish.

With his third-place finish, Johnson opened a 37-point lead in the Cup standings over second-place Kahne, who gained five spots. Johnson is 38 points ahead of Keselowski in third.

Keselowski position in the standings reflects a 25-point penalty levied after the Apr. 13 race at Texas, where NASCAR confiscated the rear axle housings of both Penske Racing cars and subsequently levied penalties on the organization. Penske has appealed, but Keselowski won’t regain the 25 points unless the appeal is upheld.

Note: For the third straight race, a driver won from the pole. The last time that happened was 1985 (Bill Elliott at Michigan, Dale Earnhardt at Bristol and Elliott at Darlington)

Out of the Tunnel Podcast – 45

This week special guest Toby Christie filled in for Adam who’s under the weather. Toby writes for Sicknissified.com and he’s on a weekly NASCAR Radio show called The Final Lap. You can follow Toby on Twitter – @Tobilical

Toby and I talked about all the action in Texas. Oh, the drama from The pre-race inspection failured by Penske and the post-race comments by Mad-Brad. Kyle’s dominance and Truex’s post-race failure.

Plus we talk about the amazing truck race in Rockingham and a scary moment in the Nationwide Race.

And of course, your favorite segment…. What’s Up Your Butt.

Lastly, I thanked ALL of the amazing people who donated to support me in the AIDS walk… we raised over $3,200 and were one of top fundraisers in this year’s walk….. I couldn’t have done it without YOU!

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Busch caps perfect weekend with Cup win at Texas

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit Todd Warshaw / Getty Images for NASCAR

The record book will say that Kyle Busch won the NRA 500 on Saturday night.

If truth be known, Busch started the process on Friday afternoon and applied the coup de grace with 20 laps left on Saturday evening.

Yes, Busch capped a perfect weekend when he took the checkered flag .508 seconds ahead of runner-up Martin Truex Jr. But Busch’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Texas, his second of the season and the 26th of his career started with a pole-winning run on Friday that afforded him the luxury of picking the No. 1 pit stall.

At the race’s crucial juncture, under the final caution for debris in Turn 4, Busch used a lightning-fast pit stop and the pit stall position closest to the exit from pit road to grab the top spot for the final restart. Truex restarted on the outside and struggled to maintain contact with the race winner.

Though he gained ground in the closing laps, Truex ran out of time.

During post-race inspection, Truex’s No. 56 Toyota failed the height-stick test and was deemed too low in the front. The car will be taken to NASCAR’s research-and-development center in Concord, N.C. for further examination.

Carl Edwards was third, followed by Greg Biffle and Joey Logano, who barely made the starting grid and rallied for an unexpected top five.

Busch, who won Friday night’s Nationwide Series race after claiming the pole, finished off the seventh Nationwide/Cup sweep of his career, a NASCAR record–and all because of the final pit stop.

“It feels good–oh, man,” Busch exulted after climbing from his car. “(Crew chief) Dave Rogers and these guys gave me a great piece today. We ran up front all day long. But if it wasn’t for my pit crew, the most awesome group ever–since 2008 we’ve been together, haven’t had any changeover–man, those guys are just awesome.

“They pulled out one heck of a stop right there at the end to put us up front, to give us that lead, and we were able to bring it home.”

Busch led a race-high 171 laps to 142 for Truex, who was beyond disappointed with the second-place result.

“We started near the front and had a decent car at the beginning, but not great,” Truex said. “We worked on it all night and got it to where it was the best car out there. The last caution came out, and we got beat out of the pits, and that was the race. It was pretty frustrating to run second again. I feel like we’ve been in this boat and this position a bunch of times.

“Nothing about it is much fun. At the same time, it was a good run for us. We had a great weekend. Had a good race car all weekend long, and we learned a lot about things we can use in the future. Just running second sucks, especially when you’re that fast. So (I’m) a little bit frustrated right now.”

Nor would Truex use Busch’s No. 1 pit stall as an excuse.

“We came in with the lead,” Truex said. “I still feel like we should have been able to beat him out. I don’t know what happened there, but it wasn’t even close. I was three (car-lengths) behind, so it wasn’t all pit position, it was other things on our end…

“It’s so hard to get in position to win these races. It is so hard to make your car good enough to beat Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch and all these guys; and we had that tonight. We’ve got to get better at taking advantage of that. That’s where we’re missing, and that’s what we need to work on. So that’s why I’m upset. Second is a great accomplishment, but it’s not what we’re here for.”

Truex streaked away from the field after a restart on lap 229 and opened a lead of more than 2.5 seconds over Busch. That advantage grew to more than four seconds before a worn-out right front tire threatened Truex’s winning chances.

As Truex brought his No. 56 Toyota to pit road under green on Lap 280, however, David Gilliland turned Marcos Ambrose’s Ford on the backstretch to cause the sixth caution of the night. As the yellow flew, Jeff Burton ran into the back of Mark Martin’s Toyota and spun into the inside wall.

Since both Truex and Busch were already on pit road when NASCAR called the caution, they remained in the lead for a restart on Lap 291. Truex opened a lead once again before a Lap 314 caution for debris in Turn 4 slowed the field again and allowed the lead-lap cars to pit for four tires.

Busch won the race off pit road, and that proved decisive, as he sped away after a restart on Lap 319 and made a bridesmaid of Truex for the sixth time since his only Sprint Cup victory on June 4, 2007.

Trouble started early for the Penske Racing Fords of reigning series champion Brad Keselowski and Logano. NASCAR confiscated the rear-end housings of the cars, forcing the teams to make a change before the race.

Keselowski made it to the grid in time for the start, but Logano’s car was late presenting itself on pit road and had to start from the rear.

“It is just something that is not in the spirit of the rules,” NASCAR vice president of competition told the Sporting News in explaining the violation. If penalties are forthcoming, they will be announced next week.

Nevertheless, both drivers rallied from a lap to down to post top-10 finishes. Keselowski came home ninth and remained second in the Cup standings, nine points behind Jimmie Johnson, who ran sixth on Saturday.