Kurt Busch snapped his more than two year drought this afternoon at Martinsville Speedway in true Outlaw fashion. His last win was on October 2, 2011 at Dover International Raceway.
“A win like today is a great step forward,” Busch said. “I don’t want it to camouflage any of the work, though, that we still have to do to make our car stronger and to be more competitive week in and week out, but don’t think that I’m not going to enjoy this for one moment.”
He continued saying, “This is an unbelievable feeling to get back to victory lane after this tour that I’ve been on, to find this opportunity with Stewart-Haas, and to win, it means the world to me.”
After contact with Brad Keselowski on pit road on lap 40 that continued onto the track with retaliation by the No. 2, Busch proclaimed that he was “done” on the radio to his team. But the No. 41 crew chief Daniel Knost rallied him, calmed him down and he was back up inside the top 10 racing some of the fastest cars of the day in no time.
There were 14 cautions throughout the afternoon at the paperclip, involving many drivers. The first one came on lap 2 when Parker Kligerman smashed into the barriers in turn three. Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Casey Mears and Justin Allgaier were also involved.
The race restarted on lap 11. The top-five were pole-sitter Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, who dominated the race most of the day, Denny Hamlin, who eventually fell back due to electrical problems, Matt Kenseth, who had an up and down day and Joey Logano in fifth. Matt Kenseth moved to the lead on lap 18, passing his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, but by the time the competition caution came out on lap 40, he fell back to eighth place as he was stuck on the outside lane and couldn’t get down. Under this caution is where the aforementioned skirmish between Bush and Keselowski began.
Jimmie Johnson led the field back to the restart on lap 47 of 500, followed by his teammate Jeff Gordon. The third caution of the afternoon came out for the No. 17 car of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who wheel hopped the car trying to get past the feuding Keselowski and Busch on the track. After another restart on lap 109 led by Joey Logano, Travis Kvapil helped David Gilliland into the wall, bringing out the fourth caution of the afternoon. Michael Annett, Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon, who was caught in the accordion effect trying to slow down, were involved in this caution.
Greg Biffle, who has never finished in the top five at this track or won a race on a short track in his whole career, took the lead after the restart on lap 119, as he got by Logano and Johnson. AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose also made their way into the top five under this green flag run, drivers you don’t usually see run up front at Martinsville.
The fifth caution of the day was for Casey Mears, who had some help spinning from David Gilliland. On lap 178, Ambrose led the field to the green flag after he won the race off pit road, followed by Biffle and Johnson.
Jamie McMurray brought out the sixth caution of the afternoon when he hit the wall hard with some help from Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Chevrolet. Kenseth led the field to the green flag but fell back to 10th as the seventh caution came out for the No. 23 of Alex Bowman.
The two BK Racing cars (Bowman & Ryan Truex) had some trouble this afternoon, just another part of being a rookie at the paperclip. Kevin Harvick’s string of bad luck continued as he came into the pits in fourth place but came out in the 15th position. This was due to a left rear chain breaking on the No. 4 car, which caused them to have slow pit stops all day long. They rallied to finish in seventh place at the end of the day.
At the halfway mark with 250 laps complete of 500, Jimmie Johnson led as Ryan Truex brought out the eighth caution of the afternoon. On the next restart, teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson traded the lead back and forth but the No. 48 prevailed.
After Kenseth went one lap down and Denny Hamlin fell back due to an electrical issue, the ninth caution came out for Joe Nemechek, who slammed the outside retaining wall. Johnson won the race off pit road, followed by the No. 15, No. 99, No. 88 and Brian Vickers. Kyle Larson then brought out the eleventh caution of the day after he spun coming off of turn two. Johnson won the race off pit road again, followed by the same four drivers.
After Kevin Harvick worked his way back into the top ten after falling back due to repairing his chain problem, the 12th caution came out for debris. With 100 laps to go, Johnson led Edwards, Kurt Busch, Harvick and Logano.
This is when the eventual race winner started to flex his muscles. The 13th caution came out for Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 48 won the race off pit road yet again, but what happened next was a rarity. With 50 laps remaining in the STP 500, Johnson slipped up just a tad, opening the door for Clint Bowyer to move past him and take over the top spot. But that was short lived, as Johnson got right back by the No. 15 car of Bowyer. Kurt Busch was watching this all unfold in third place, plotting his next move.
On lap 458, Carl Edwards brought out the 14th and final caution after spinning while running in fifth place. The final restart of the race came with 35 laps to go as Jimmie Johnson led Logano, Kurt Busch and Almirola. With 27 laps to go, Kurt Busch took the lead away from Johnson, leading for the first time all day. Johnson then took the lead back from Busch, but Busch wasn’t going down without a fight. He took the lead back and with a mere 10 laps to go, held on and won the race, snapping his long dry spell.
When asked about chasing down the dominant No. 48 car, Kurt Busch told FOX’s Krista Voda in victory lane that he “didn’t know if [they’d] be able to catch him, you know. The No. 48 is king here.” He added, “I’ve been on this journey for awhile, every time you come to Martinsville you just cross a line though it!” When asked about his comments on lap 44 about their day being “done,” Busch said, “We won; we’re not worried about that right now!” His car looked beat up, but he got the win nonetheless.
Runner-up Jimmie Johnson said that he was “loose in the final third of the race,” adding that he was “hopeful that [Busch] would wear his stuff out. That’s all I had, man. I ran the rear tires off the car. We had a very fast race car; I wish we could’ve gotten this win for sure.”
Next weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Fort Worth and Texas Motor Speedway. We now have six different winners through six races. Will we have a seventh new winner next weekend? We’ll find out as we go from under 100 mph and tight corners to 200 plus mph and high banked corners. Hopefully the Duck Commander 500 will be as good a race as these past two weeks at Fontana and Martinsville.
