Kyle Busch pounces on Johnson’s mistake, wins at Dover
Kyle Busch, 25, a champion in waiting, and Jimmie Johnson, a proven one, waged quite a battle on the high-banked, 1-mile track, the lead see-sawing back and forth between the two each time the race resumed following five caution periods and assorted green-flag stops.
(May 16, 2010)
Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
DOVER, Del.—Kyle
Busch took advantage of a rare mistake by four-time Sprint Cup Series
champion Jimmie Johnson to pull away for an easy win Sunday in the
Autism Speaks 400 presented by HERSHEY'S Milk & Milkshakes at Dover
International Speedway.
Busch, 25, a champion in waiting, and
Johnson, a proven one, waged quite a battle on the high-banked, 1-mile
track, the lead see-sawing back and forth between the two each time the
race resumed following five caution periods and assorted green-flag
stops.
But when Johnson was flagged for speeding
while exiting the pits during a round of green-flag stops on Lap 363
and forced to return to pit road to serve a drive-through penalty, the
battle was effectively over.
By the time Johnson returned to the track, he was one lap down. And Busch was long gone.
“We snookered him on that one,” Busch told his crew as he streaked past the finish line. “He saw us coming, and he sped.”
Pitting closer to the entrance to pit road,
Johnson had completed his stop and was making his way back onto the
track when Busch shot out of his pit box alongside him.
Johnson said he didn’t speed up to beat Busch
back onto the track but was penalized for speeding before reaching
Busch’s pit stall.
“Yeah, I guess I got busted in the segment
just leaving, or after, our pit box, the very next one,” Johnson said.
“So what I can take from this is that I got a much better launch out of
my pit box than I did on other pit stops and then was speeding in that
given area.
“At the end (of pit road), I wasn’t busted. I
knew Kyle had me beat when I saw the jack drop for him and he was
easing away from me. And I kind of gave up at that point on racing him
off of pit road because I knew we needed to be single file on the
apron.”
Jeff Burton finished second by 7.551 seconds. Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and David Reutimann completed the top five.
There were eight race leaders, but once Kasey
Kahne faltered—bitten by a broken gear-shifter early in the race—the
battle for the win was between Busch and Johnson.
“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 today.
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 today, with or
without the penalty. But he had a fast racecar all day. It was a fun
battle there racing him through the last … 100 laps or so.”
Busch led six times for 131 laps, and the win
moved him to second in the point standings. He trails points leader
Kevin Harvick, who finished seventh, by 69 points.
Johnson led eight times for 225 laps. His 16th-place finish, however, dropped him two spots to fourth, in the standings.