Kurt Busch wins rain-shortened Cup race in New Hampshire
Quote selected text Published June 29th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Former series champion Kurt Busch stayed on track when the leaders pitted late in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire and the strategy paid off with a win when the race was cut 17 laps short by rain.
It is the first victory for the Penske Racing driver since last September at California Speedway and it came on a day when two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart dominated, only to see his hard luck continue and his winless string increase to 31 races.
“These guys made an awesome call,” Busch said. “Sometimes you just don’t win ‘em the right way, I think we can honestly say that, but we had a lot of work and a lot of effort put in today and we’ll take it.”
RESULTS:
FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 26 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 190/5 284 Running
2 36 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 170/0 284 Running
3 30 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV 165/0 284 Running
4 8 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 160/0 284 Running
5 11 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Hancock / Best Buy / Garmin 155/0 284 Running
6 6 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 150/0 284 Running
7 24 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet CARQUEST / Kellogg’s 151/5 284 Running
8 12 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Ground 142/0 284 Running
9 23 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 138/0 284 Running
10 2 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 134/0 284 Running
11 19 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 130/0 284 Running
12 31 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet LENOX Industrial Tools 127/0 284 Running
13 28 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 134/10 284 Running
14 3 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 126/5 284 Running
15 16 12 Ryan Newman Dodge Alltel 118/0 284 Running
16 40 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 115/0 284 Running
17 17 99 Carl Edwards Ford DISH Network / DishDVRs 112/0 284 Running
18 9 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT 109/0 284 Running
19 29 44 David Reutimann Toyota UPS 106/0 284 Running
20 43 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row
/ DenverMattress.com 108/5 284 Running
21 15 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 100/0 284 Running
22 18 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 97/0 284 Running
23 39 8 Aric Almirola Chevrolet U.S. Army 94/0 284 Running
24 5 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet National Guard / AMP Energy 96/5 284 Running
25 27 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Interstate Batteries 88/0 284 Running
26 22 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Camping World
/ RVs.com 90/5 284 Running
27 25 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet DEI / Principal Financial Group 82/0 283 Running
28 33 38 David Gilliland Ford FreeCreditRep
ort.com 79/0 283 Running
29 42 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet Sylvania / Menards 76/0 282 Running
30 14 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 73/0 282 Running
31 1 10 Patrick Carpentier * Dodge Berlin City Auto Group 75/5 282 Running
32 32 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Texaco / Havoline 67/0 282 Running
33 41 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 64/0 281 Running
34 4 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters 61/0 281 Running
35 34 45 Terry Labonte Dodge Victory Junction Gang 58/0 281 Running
36 21 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Ford. Drive one. 55/0 281 Running
37 37 70 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Atlas Copco 52/0 280 Running
38 7 40 Dario Franchitti * Dodge The Guitar Hero / Target 49/0 280 Running
39 20 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 46/0 280 Running
40 35 6 David Ragan Ford AAA Insurance / Red Sox 43/0 272 Accident
41 13 26 Jamie McMurray Ford IRWIN Industrial Tools 40/0 270 Accident
42 38 00 Michael McDowell * Toyota Champion Mortgage 37/0 209 Engine
43 10 84 A.J. Allmendinger Toyota Red Bull 34/0 202 Oil Line
- Rain delays becoming common for Nextel Cup
- Rain delays Loudon Cup practice-UPDATED
- Urgency for Cup drivers trying to make the chase
- Michigan could become final race in The Chase
- Kyle vs. Kurt after 125 races…Kurt leads
A Win is A Win, Its time to get to Florida. this rain sucks. Congrats to the Penske team.
yeah no joke Howie….JR won on fuel mileage and everyone made a big deal about it….this is just as bad…but just like JR said…He got the points, the money and the trophy…all that matters!
Best race of the weekend has to go not to the Cup race, but too the Modified race. Margin of Victory was less then the transponders can score (NASCAR’s transponders only go to thousandths), Too bad SPEED and TNT couldn’t come to an agreement, and the race will not be on SPEED in a few weeks like originally scheduled.
Because the race was 301 instead of 300 laps, it would have been something if the fuel milage gamblers ran out on lap 300 (If the rain hadn’t come). Haha.
Although it wasnt his day Stewart looked strong but he likes them hot slick tracks.
darrell wrote:
The only difference is that the 3 members of “Kurt Nation” aren’t proclaiming he’s “back” since he got a win!
well the race was Tonys but what can you do, you have 90,000 fans in metal seats and the skies just let lose with hail, rain and lightning. its all about safety for everyone. Michael needs not celebrate either because it was just a freak that he got 2nd. im surprised this article is the only one Kenneth posted on the race. thats good.
The race was actually good, a welcome change from
the Pocono and Infineon combo that are rather,shall we say
boring.
(Although I do like road racing)
Howie Motorsports Photography wrote:
Strategy (when legal Strategy) to get a good finish is no different then actually racing to get a good finish. After all he had to have his car still running on the lead lap in decent condition to be able to get that when the race was called.
Was hoping that Stewart had this all wrapped up, but with all those drivers staying out and the rain I already knew that was not the case. Even if they stayed green and the rain didn’t come there was no way he could batter through all those cars to be in position to win. Hoping his luck at the night race in Daytona will change his luck. Kurt won the race and like it was said he was there at the end and sometimes strategy overruns a fast car in some cases.
I liked seeing tony back up front! Does this mean he is a wheel man after all?
“It is the first victory for the Penske Racing driver since last September at California Speedway ”
Someone oughta tell JJ they took his win away then…
Jeff wrote:
not ALL of JR nation think hes back….IMO he never left…he had crappy equipment last season and everyone seems to forget that everytime he had a dominant car it blew up…plsu everyone knows Kurt Busch has sucked this year…and if he does finish well its all pit strategy not b/c of penske’s cars…kurt said himself they are lacking the horsepower on the straightaways….come daytona thats gonna be a HUGE problem
Darrell, at Daytona earlier this year the Penske cars seemed to do pretty good…..
darrell wrote:
who finished 1 2 at daytona in feb? i don’t see daytona being a problem
Fisha695 wrote:
Yeah, they ran #1 and #2.
Sam wrote:
Not to mention Hornish came in 15th in his first plate start. I don’t think Penske is going to have a problem with power in the 400, unless they lost their motors from the 500. Actually, I guess they did lose one to the Daytona USA Museum, but they’ve got the other two. I’m sure they’ll figure it out.
Chances are they wouldn’t run their 500 motors in the 400 anyway. Normally 900 miles (well probaly close to 1,100 when you add in all the practice and stuff) isn’t much for a motor, but with the sustained RPM’s at Tona/Dega the engines are usually only ran for one race, and then put into one of the teams test cars.
This may be all it takes to get Kurt back to VL again. He is very good at Daytona. Look at Kasey won the All Star and he caught fire. Maybe the next month instead of Kyle Busch it will be Kurt Busch? I’m still hoping Smoke catches fire but I don’t think until he says what he’s going to do he will.
I still can’t believe Kyle didn’t congratulate his brother and instead said he won it the wrong way! Dang Kyle I’ve seen Kurt over in VL to congratulate you! Grow up! It’s not all about winning every darn race. Family is more important!
Erin wrote:
We all know Kyle is seriously lacking on sportsmanship when you cant even be happy for your own brother there is a problem.
It’s actually pretty sad that you guys are still trying to come up with reasons to hate Kyle… if you don’t like him, don’t pay attention to him then!
And you should go listen to the interview again… he’s not saying that Kurt won it the wrong way… wow.