Race Weekend Central

Kurt Busch Closes the Deal at Richmond, Wins 1st Race of 2015

Kurt Busch is back and perhaps better than ever.

For the 26th time in his Sprint Cup Series career and second at Richmond International Raceway, Busch drove to Victory Lane for the Toyota Owners 400, snapping a 35-race winless drought.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Busch told FOX in Victory Lane. “It’s a total team effort and the way that everything came together, it just seemed like we were building and building towards a great finish like this.”

For the elder Busch, the 2015 Sprint Cup Series season started with a suspension by NASCAR that lasted three races. Even with a waiver granted for a possible Chase birth for the 36-year-old, most drivers would struggle to overcome the unfortunate spotlight to get their head back in the game, let alone be competitive.

But Busch led more laps in a single race (291) than in his prior 512 Sprint Cup starts. This was the fifth straight race Busch led laps and, after a few near-wins, finally was able to close the deal.

 

“I have this opportunity because of Gene Haas and everybody that’s part of our family at Stewart-Haas,” Busch continued. “It’s an unbelievable feeling when you pull deep from within and go through troubles. When you’re accused of something and things go sideways, your personal life doesn’t need to affect the business life and I’m here in Victory Lane. It feels great to do it here at Richmond.”

For the greater part of the Sunday afternoon, Busch was trailed by SHR teammate Kevin Harvick.

“What we really needed was all the tires to be the same,” said Harvick who finished second, 0.755 seconds behind Busch. “We put that one set of tires on and went back to 12th or 13th and wound up making up the spots.”

To join the tire troubles, the No. 4 team also experienced trackbar issues.

“Trackbar broke and we weren’t able to get the trackbar back where it needed to be,” Harvick continued. “That got us way behind.”

Following a tough Friday qualifying session, Jimmie Johnson took the green flag in the 36th position. Fighting hard to a third, Johnson said they are “making the most of these poor starts.”

“We had a great race car,” Johnson said. “We really felt like that was the case on Friday except for our qualifying lap. Those last few restarts I was able to hang on and duke it out with those guys and get a nice top 3 finish.”

Rounding out the top five was Jamie McMurray in fourth and Joey Logano in fifth, two drivers who found strength in the longer green-flag runs.

“[The car] wouldn’t take off real quick but after 30 laps it was, I thought, the same as the leaders,” said McMurray, grabbing his second top five of 2015. “It was so much fun at the end to be that much quicker than those guys. It kind of reminded me of the old Darlington or old Rockingham when somebody would take off and there would be the guy that couldn’t go that would come at the end.”

From the pole, Logano led the opening 94 laps before falling victim to Busch.

“We rallied to a top five out of the whole thing so that was good,” Logano said. “We have to figure out how to be better in the middle part of the run when we come back.”

Kasey Kahne fought from a 40th-place start to finish sixth. Matt Kenseth was seventh, with Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. completing the top 10.

On lap 361, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rubbed tires on the frontstretch, resulting in a spin by Stewart, ending his solid run.

After being asked about the contact, Earnhardt replied, “I don’t know, you have to ask (Stewart). He hit me in the left-rear corner panel. I was trying to clear the [No.] 51 on the outside of me so I was just as high as I could go.”

The fourth SHR car of Danica Patrick had an eventful day, avoiding a number of accidents by the skin of her teeth, later finishing 25th, two laps down.

Chase Elliott made his second Sprint Cup start in a fifth Hendrick Motorsports entry, starting and finishing 16th.

“I thought we had a fast car,” Elliott said. “Had a great car on the long run, we could really run well and run some guys down late in the run. We will try to get better and try to have a better run at Charlotte.”

The race was run on a Sunday after rain postponed the event Saturday night.

2015 TOYOTA OWNERS 400 RACE RESULTS

About the author

Growing up in Easton, Pa., Zach Catanzareti has grown his auto racing interest from fandom to professional. Joining Frontstretch in 2015, Zach enjoys nothing more than being at the track, having covered his first half-season of 18 races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2017. With experience behind the wheel, behind the camera and in the media center, he thrives on being an all-around reporter.

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JER

Kurt, has it all going for him. Just don’t screw it up and keep your self control. SH now has aligned their assets pairing Gibson and Bush gives them two strong cars, however, something still isn’t right with Tony. As far as Danica, her value to SH is nothing more than a “cash cow” if and when the money dries up she will be gone.

russ

Easy to see which companies (as opposed to individual teams) have figured it out this year. SHR, and HMS of course. Penske and JGR almost. The rest, well they will still make some money.

While true that Danica is a “cash cow” for SHR, seems like Stewart is the “I’m part owner and you can’t fire me” guy.

JohnQ

The rules of Political Correctness clearly state that any white male is guilty of any accusation leveled by any member of a protected class, minority’s, females, gays to name a few. Evidence is an unnecessary distraction from the real issue, whatever that may be. Thus Kurt Busch gets a PC suspension from the cowards at PCCAR. His livelihood was threatened without cause so NASCAR could pretend to care. He should sue.

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