Kyle Busch Gets Second Career Win At New Hampshire
Kyle Busch learned some hard lessons last year as a rookie in the Nextel Cup series.
He put some of that knowledge to good use Sunday at New Hampshire
International Speedway on the way to his first victory of the season.
"We’re just trying to bide our time, making our own race and trying to
get it to the end in one piece," Busch said. "Two weeks ago, we
finished second [in Daytona] and last week we finished third [at
Chicago]. We’re just running our race out there and letting everybody
else make their mistakes."
A year ago, Busch was the best rookie in NASCAR’s top stock car series
and had two victories, but the driver who is now 21 years old wound up
a disappointing 20th in the season points and had as many bad results
as good ones.
"Last year, we made the mistake of worrying too much about what other teams were doing," Busch said. "We kind of lost touch with what we were needing to do. Now we don’t worry about anybody else during the race. We just worry about our own racecar."
That was evident Sunday as Busch drove hard and avoided the problems that brought out 11 caution flags and caused trouble for several of the top contenders.
Jeff Gordon Gets His First Win At Chicago
Jeff Gordon spun out Matt Kenseth with four laps to go, then held on to win Sunday’s Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway.
Fans showered the track with debris after the race, an apparent protest of Gordon’s racing tactics.
"I hate to win one like that,” Gordon said in Victory Lane. "Matt, he ran a great race.”
Gordon
and Kenseth tangled earlier this year during a race at Bristol Motor
Speedway, causing Gordon to shove Kenseth afterward. Gordon denied that
Sunday’s finish had anything to do with Bristol.
Gordon said he didn’t want to wreck Kenseth, insisting, "I wanted to race him.” But he added Kenseth was trying to block him.
"I’m not going to back down,” Gordon said. "I wanted to win.”
Tony Stewart Climbs Fence After Win At Daytona
Tony Stewart’s slump is over, his shoulder is fine and his fence-climbing is as good as ever.
His moves in a mosh pit leave something to be desired.
Stewart
was back to his on-track dominance and off-track hijinks, winning at
Daytona International Speedway by charging to the lead with two laps to
go Saturday night. He then celebrated with his trademark climbing of
the fence, but made the mistake of jumping into the crowd — where he
found himself overwhelmed by rowdy fans.
He had to be rescued
by his crew and several NASCAR officials, who cleared a path through
the mob for the beloved NASCAR champion.
"I made the mistake of
going down the ladder," he said. "I thought there was a gate there. I
didn’t find the gate and was in the mosh pit for a while."
But Stewart, who started climbing fences with this race last year, wasn’t going to disappoint the expectant crowd.
"There
was no way I was going to let those race fans down," he said. "It
started here … I was either going to get all the way up or I was
going to fall off and fall on my butt. But I wasn’t going to stop."
