Kurt Busch looked to have the race in hand, holding a solid advantage ahead of Jeff Gordon as the race began to come to a close. Then, with nine laps to go, the caution would fly due to debris after Matt DiBenedetto got into the wall. Rather than scoring the victory, Busch would fall back on the final restart after staying out, finishing third.
“Overall, I’m really proud of this team and everybody at Haas Automation and Stewart Haas Racing,” Busch commented post-race. “This Chevy was fast. It was fast enough to win. When the caution came out there at the end, I thought we had the right strategy, but we didn’t.”
While it marks a disappointment for the driver who felt he had the winning racecar, it marks a solid start to the Chase for the Championship for the 2004 Sprint Cup Series Championship.
“This is a point’s day,” he stated. “This is a long journey through these next 10 weeks. We weren’t given a hall pass now, through Loudon and through Dover. We’ve just got to work hard as a team and saddle-up. This isn’t just a win and take a couple of weeks off, but we had a winning car today. It’s kind of a shame.”
Moving forward, the confidence remains high for the driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet. He has scored 15 top-10 finishes thus far this season while running up front and leading laps. He was solid at New Hampshire in the spring with a 10th place finish, though finished 31st at Dover in June. Notably, Busch has failed to post a top-10 at Dover since winning there in 2011.
It was very convienient for JGR and TRD to have that last caution, no? What brand of car hit the wall with 10 to go,Chevy,Ford,Toyota? What would be really nice is some investigative reporting in na$car.
Matt DiBenedetto got into the wall. He drives for BK Racing. BK Racing runs Toyotas.
Though while you’re trying to create a conspiracy, I don’t think TRD or BK Racing or JGR would try to put something together as of this nature for their company’s benefit. There’s no guarantee that Denny Hamlin and Toyota would’ve got the restart – he got lucky in getting the run three-wide off the jump. There’s no guarantee that they’d get the win as any of the Chevrolet or Ford drivers could’ve stayed out and made the strategy work, as Jeff Gordon tried. Furthermore, I don’t think teams would try and manipulate the Chase after the penalties that MWR received in their tries at Richmond in 2013.
Besides, this isn’t the first time that DiBenedetto has gottne into the wall. Just have to look at his season to date with BK Racing and lack of experience to know this isn’t something out of the ordinary.