Kyle Busch wins at Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) - Kyle Busch won the battle of attrition
Saturday night as NASCAR's least popular driver overcame a pit-road
penalty and several scrapes with the wall to win at Darlington
Raceway.
Busch's third Sprint Cup Series victory of the season hardly
thrilled the crowd, which viciously booed him in prerace
introductions and hadn't softened by the time he took the checkered
flag. Already loathed by many, he enraged Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s
massive fan base by wrecking him as they raced for the win last
week in Richmond.
It created a frenzy of hatred toward Busch, but the 23-year-old
driver tuned it out and focused on what he does best: winning
races.
The win was his eighth of the season spanning NASCAR's top three
series, and he has won most of them in very convincing fashion.
This one was no different, as Busch led a race-high 169 of the 367
laps in a Toyota he described early in the race as the "most
pathetic" he'd ever driven.
He also overcame every speed bump thrown his way on the track
"Too Tough to Tame" en route to the win.
"Darlington showed again tonight it's one of the hardest
places. Always has been, always will be," Busch said in Victory
Lane. "We're going to go through a lot of Mac tools trying to fix
this thing, but that's OK. They gave me such a race car."
An offseason repaving project smoothed the asphalt on the
egg-shaped, 1.366-mile superspeedway, and the new surface gave the
entire field fits. It made the track extremely fast and grippy,
forcing Goodyear to bring a very sturdy tire that could handle the
speeds and survive long runs.
The combination of the smooth surface, hard tires and narrow
racing line put passing at a premium, and forced several drivers
into the wall for the infamous "Darlington stripe."
Busch was no exception, bouncing hard off of it at least twice
in what was an eventful fight to the finish. He was leading early
in the race but was penalized when his crew left a lug nut off his
rear wheel following a pit stop, dropping him to 29th.
He battled his way back to the front, patiently picking off
Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt and finally seven-time Darlington winner
Jeff Gordon to reclaim the top position. From there, the kid who
chases the checkered flag every time he's on the track pulled away,
forcing his spotter to beg him to slow down a mere 50 laps from the
finish.
But Busch isn't capable of going slow, and he stayed on the gas
until the finish while stretching his Sprint Cup Series lead to 79
points over Jeff Burton.
"I can't tell you how many times he tried to give the race away
by slamming into the wall, his right side was destroyed," said
Gordon.
Carl Edwards finished second and was pleased with the outcome
after initially loathing the new surface.
"Kyle had the best car. He was pretty unbeatable tonight,"
Edwards said.
He was followed by Gordon, who was happy with the finish but
frustrated he's still searching for his first win of the season.
"We know we have some work to do," Gordon said.
Earnhardt finished fourth, David Ragan was fifth and was
followed by Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin - Busch's teammate at Joe
Gibbs Racing. Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney and Burton rounded out the
top 10.
Almost every driver struggled in some sense, and the problems
started early, with Elliott Sadler losing control of his car on the
second lap of the race - squeezing Tony Stewart into the Turn 1
wall.
"I just made a huge mistake," Sadler said. "I just went in
too low into Turn 1. I was actually trying to give Tony more room
and I just got loose under him and spun into him. I know he's
pretty mad at me, but nothing I did intentionally. I've never had
any problems with him, and don't want to start it tonight."
The incident prevented Stewart, winner of Friday night's
Nationwide Series race, from ever running with the leaders and he
finished a frustrating 21st.
But Stewart's angst was nothing compared to what pole-sitter
Greg Biffle felt after leading 95 laps, only to end his night early
with a broken timing belt. The part failed after he'd already
overcome two loose wheels, and the crew errors had Biffle seething
after his early exit.
"I give 110 percent as a driver all the time and you just want
your equipment to last and be able to win these races," said
Biffle, a highly sought after free agent who has yet to reach a
contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing.
"You can deal with a flat tire or something like that, but when
it's self-induced, it makes it even harder. It makes it so hard to
swallow."