Food City 500 Race Review

Bristol Motor Speedway -- 03/22/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Mar 23 2009 12:40am

I think I heard the past few weeks of NASCAR Cup racing summed up best this way: “All Busch Brothers, all the time.”

After Matt Kenseth won the first two races of the ’09 season at Daytona and Fontana, the next three have been won by one of the Busch boys – Kyle in Las Vegas, Kurt in Atlanta, and Kyle again today in Bristol.

The race lacked any of the real drama or flare that made Bristol a fan favorite in years past. Though Mark Martin started on the pole, he led just two laps early, after which Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson shared the lead in some of the very early laps. Those two, in fact, were the only drivers to lead double digit laps – Newman with 25 and Johnson with 88 altogether.

Kyle Busch first took the lead at lap 69 and went on to another totally dominating performance, running up front for 378 of 503 laps – or 75% of the race. Only a green-white-checkered finish – brought on by Joey Logano’s engine expiring on lap 494 of the scheduled 500 – lent a touch of suspense to the race’s outcome.

Busch had teammate Denny Hamlin, who had led a handful of laps in the early going, behind him on the final restart, followed by the Hendrick teammates of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Kyle was flawless as usual on the restart and, while Hamlin and Johnson battled for position, Busch pulled away to victory.

Asked if there were any particular worries as the race wound down, Busch replied, “There definitely is, especially when we were gaining on all those lap cars with like 30 to go. You never know if a lap car’s gonna turn another lap car and spin in front of you and you're going to T-bone the guy or whatever. You never know what’s gonna happen - that’s what’s so tricky about this race track. That's what makes it so fun when you do win here - you know all the things that can happen.”

Followed Busch across the finish line were Hamlin, Johnson, Gordon, and Kasey Kahne in 5th with his best run this year. Places 6-10 were occupied by Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Marcos Ambrose, who also had his best finish of the season.

Busch defied the conventional Bristol wisdom which holds that most race winners here will come from a top-10 starting spot, as 80% of the Cup winners have in the past. But the repaving two years ago changed the nature of Bristol racing, particularly in terms of a second groove. Busch started 19th, while Hamlin started 24th and Jeff Burton, who finished 8th, started 40th.

There were a few potential contenders for the win who sustained damage early on in a multicar collision that was triggered when Michael Waltrip cut off Todd Bodine. Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch were two of the unfortunate victims.
Along with Joey Logano’s late race engine trouble, Greg Biffle, who’s been struggling with a painful rib injury all week, also had an engine expire. Though he qualified 4th, Biffle finished in 39th place.

Kurt Busch finished 11th, Dale Earnhardt Jr., 14th, Carl Edwards, 15th, Tony Stewart, 17th, Kevin Harvick, 30th, and Matt Kenseth, 33rd.

Jeff Gordon was the only driver in the top 12 in the standings to maintain his points position after Bristol. Gordon is still first in points with a 76-point lead over Kurt Busch, who climbed to 2nd, while Clint Bowyer slipped to 3rd. Kyle Busch moved up three spots to 4th.

Denny Hamlin’s 2nd-place finish moved him into the top 12, gaining six spots to 8th, while Brian Vickers, who finished 29th, fell out of the top 12. Jimmie Johnson also moved into the top 12, replacing Greg Biffle.

More short-track action is coming your way this Sunday at Martinsville. Check back mid-week for our race preview.

Comment on this article.

(255 chars max)

Username:
(No HTML)

Captcha:

User	Comment
jade06	Congratulations to Kyle Busch. Even though I`m not an avid fan of his, he deserves acknowledgment for winning the race no matter how reckless he drives in the track.
Tetchie	Kyle`s proud of blabbing about the track after winning the race. He wouldn`t behave like that if he didn`t win. You`ve got a point ryder_29, Kyle just thinks highly of himself.
brix12	Is Todd Bodine a new driver? I`ve never heard of him before now. And I did not know that Greg Biffle has a painful rib injury, where did that injury come from?
ryder_29	I am not also a fan of Kyle Busch because he complains too much every time he didn`t win the race. He wasn`t even happy when his brother Kurt won in Atlanta. He just think highly of himself.
Cal	Between the crazy insanity going on with K and B. brothers it seems almost impossible for anyone else to get in there. Maybe this coming weekend will prove different if we are lucky.
NascarGroupie	Was anyone else as disappointed by this race as I was? That was the tamest Bristol race I`ve seen in years. The Busch boys may be off to a good start but can they stand the test of time?
Karlee	"All Busch Brothers all the time." It certainly seems so, but the race wasn`t thrilling. I thought Edwards could do better than 15th. I hope he can do better next time.
NapaFave55	I`m glad that Jeff is still holding his own and maintains his first place points position after this race. One that I am glad to see move into the top 12 is Jimmie Johnson. I hope to see him continually climb back towards the top of the rankings. I`m looking forward to see how the odds lay out for this coming weekend`s race in Martinsville.
RaceFan88	Not being a fan of Kyle Busch, I can say I wasn`t thrilled he won. He whines to much for my taste. It was unfortunate that Michael Waltrip was the catalyst for the crash early on. I wouldn`t have minded seeing Kurt Busch win. He`s much more classy, in my opinion.
OGr8ty8	I`m a bit disappointed that Dale finished 14th. I had hoped for a better finish to up his position in the rankings and to improve his odds. Hopefully, this next week brings better luck.
Nascar Groupie	My man won the race. Yay! I think we have seen the last of Matt Kenseth for a while. he had is moment of stardom and has now fell off the radar for the year.
TrafficJam	Frankly I`m about tired of the Busches for a while. Lets see someone new have a chance at the fame and glory. I`m going to be keeping my eye on Denny Hamilin though. He is a long shot, but an interesting long shot nonetheless.
brownlee59	I really thought Jimmy Johnson was gonna win. It almost looked as if he let Kyle pass him on purpose. I knew once Kyle did pass him that was it. And I am so happy that Kasey came in 5th.
junkyard	Leading for so much of the race it was no surprise that Kyle was going to win. He ran a better race, it`s that simple. I agree it was a boring race for me.
RIRmama	I was tickled to see Denny Hamlin do SOOO well yesterday! I wish that Gordon had been able to pull it off but was happy that Hamlin came in 2nd. We were hoping to go to the Martinsville race but I don`t think it`ll happen.
Perdy	Biffle had a bad week all around. I was surprised that Busch did it again but am looking forward to next weekend to see how it works out for him in Martinsville. Great race yesterday!
jamming	I`m sure Kyle Busch was very pleased to take this race, especially after the disappointment Saturday in the Nationwide. This race overall was rather bland,though. I actually started channel flipping about a third of the way through.