Denied victory at Daytona by an inopportune pit call last Sunday, Kurt Busch drove like lightning in a two-lap overtime dash to the finish to win Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.
Swapping sheet metal with brother Kyle Busch as the siblings battled for the victory throughout the overtime, Busch collected his first victory of the season in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. The 2004 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion won for the first time at Kentucky and the 31st time in his career.
Kurt Busch beat his brother to the finish line by .076 seconds, the closest margin of victory at a 1.5-mile intermediate speedway this season. It was also the first Cup triumph for a Chevrolet at Kentucky, which began hosting races in NASCAR’s premier series in 2011. It was also the first victory for Busch’s crew chief, Matt McCall.
“Hell yeah! Hell yeah!” Busch exulted after climbing from his car on the frontstretch. “I’m proud he (Kyle) gave me a little room on the outside. He could have clobbered us against the wall, and he probably would have got it.”
Busch was running fourth, nine seconds behind then-leader Joey Logano, when Bubba Wallace spun in Turn 2 with six laps left in regulation. Logano, third-place Erik Jones, the Busch brothers and Denny Hamlin stayed out on older tires for the overtime, with Kurt Busch having fresher rubber on his left side, thanks to a four-tire pit stop under green on Lap 213 of a scheduled 267.
That caution helped balance the scales of fortune. Last Sunday at Daytona, Busch pitted from the lead when NASCAR gave the one-lap-to-go signal, only to have a lightning bolt within the eight-mile range return the race to caution. After rain hit the track, Justin Haley, who stayed out, got the victory.
The misfortune at Daytona, made Busch relish his Kentucky win all the more!
THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE GO FAST
Kentucky was a great place to use your Kurt Busch card! There was only one player riding shotgun with the winner, The Outlaw, aka Kurt Busch, and that player was Kathy The Church Forecloser. For her support KuBu rewarded The Church Forecloser with a very much needed 40 points!
THE SHAKERS AND THE MOVERS
Following The Church Forecloser this week on the scoring pylon is someone who has bee floundering around somewhere The Outhouse most of this segment, Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head (although her luck has been escaping her in this segment). The Cheddar Head racked up 35 big points at Kentucky for her selection of the other Busch Brother, Kyle. As I mentioned earlier, if you missed this race you missed the greatest finish to a race in many years. It reminded me of the finish at Darlington some years ago with Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven!
There was a foursome of players who were shoe-horned into the cockpit of “Easy Money’s” hot rod at the start of the race. Those four players include Carlton The Doorman, Lonna The Quilt Angel, David The Mudslinging Throttle Jockey, as well as Bobby Blue Crush. Each player added a very nice 33 points to their totals bucket from Kyle Larson’s 4th place finish.
Meanwhile, Carole, aka Rudy, and Snoopy Dawn partnered up supporting The Delivernator, Denny Hamlin, this week. Both players were rewarded with 32 points for the allegiance and loyalty to Hamlin.
Rounding out the top five scorers this week is the unlikely duo of Bernie The Bay Area Bandit and Linda B. The Lemonade Lefty. Both ladies neatly added 31 points to their totals with a Clint Bowyer sixth place finish.
Once again this week there was small but widespread movement in the standings with only Carlton the Doorman, Bernie The Bay Area Bandit, Carole, aka Rudy, and Lonna The Quilt Angel standing firm in their previous positions.
The single biggest mover this week is David the Mudslinging Throttle Jockey. His surge this week of rocketing up four positions in the standings seems to be mimicking his recent success on the dirt track! The Throttle Jockey is now residing in 12th place with just five races to go. As George Jefferson would say, “we’re movin’ on up”!
There were five players who slipped and slid two places on the leaderboard. Those five players include Bobby Blue Crush, Edie The Las Vegas Super Star, Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head, Wild Bill The Pretzel Man, and Jim, aka Chiefy. Only Blue Crush and The Cheddar Head bettered their previous week’s position and now sit in 10th and 15th position. Whereas The Vegas Super Star, The Pretzel Dude, and Chiefy all fell two spots to reside in 13th, 16th, and 17th, respectively.
The remaining seven players all moved up or down one position this week.
STRAIGHT FROM THE CRAPPER
This week “The Crappiest Pick of The Week” award goes out to the player who could only muster up 7 little points, Edie The Las Vegas Super Star. Her choice of Mr. Seven-Time, Jimmie Johnson, only delivered 7 points to he bucket this week.
Once again Lonna The Quilt Angel is nestled into her warm and fuzzy home away from home, The Outhouse. The gap to her next closest rival, Chiefy, is 20 points and who knows he could be making a late segment charge to The Outhouse!
Next week the haulers make a trip up to New England for some “Chowda”!
PLEASE INDULGE ME ONE TIME
I will break with my normal traditional sign off and my racing music selection, because for those who do not follow me on Facebook, there has been a huge loss in my personal family as well as our in Redneck Fantasy League Family. Karen The Highly Opinionated Southern Belle, and my wife, has lost her valiant battle against Pulmonary Fibrosis on Friday.
TIL WE MEET AGAIN!