Kyle Busch races with a heavy heart to second place finish at Martinsville

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”241″][/media-credit]Martinsville Speedway has been a thorn in Kyle Busch’s side lately, but in Sunday afternoon’s Tums Fast Relief 500 he nearly pulled it out. Busch rebounded from an early spin to finish second to Jimmie Johnson, unable to make a move on the eventual winner and new point leader during the race’s final five lap dash.

Busch earned his best career finish at the paperclip. One that was hard to swallow for two reasons, the first being that Busch knew he could have done something different in taking his shot at the win. Yet, coming up short in a clean race to the one of the best drivers in Martinsville history took was nothing to hang his head on.

“Jimmie did a good job. He’s a five time champion, six-time champion, probably six, for a reason,” said Busch afterwards. “I was getting into one, got to his rear bumper. Didn’t want to move him out of the way. He slowed the corner down, protected the bottom.

“When I went back to the gas, I spun my tires and got loose, he squirted away from me. No chance of getting back to him in three and four. He manipulated my car the way he needed to protect himself for the last corner down there in three and four.”

Busch started the day third and ran top five for most of the race’s first 150 laps. But when the team decided not to pit during one cycle, Busch started to feel chatter. While losing ground to the leaders Busch spun in turn four and fell to as low as 30th.

Able to keep the car off the wall, he stayed on the lead lap and went to work. By the race’s 300-lap mark he was back inside the top 10. Then he was in contention for the win when the pay window was set to open. For Busch, it was about keeping his brakes and everything cool, giving his equipment a rest when needed.

The track got faster as the ran wore on and went through spurts of long green flag runs. That’s when Busch was his best, able to run down those who weren’t able to maintain during that time.

It just wasn’t mean to be for Busch, again at Martinsville. A track that he’s been more cold than hot, Busch earned just his eighth top 10 finish at the facility in 16 starts.

“So close, yet so far away it seems like here at Martinsville time and time again,” Busch said. “Struggled early, got behind. Spun out there, was able to work on it, get ourselves a pretty decent car. Probably a third or fourth place car.

“I think we were able to come home second there. Can’t say enough about the effort, the guys did a good job. Denny [Hamlin, teammate] had issues. I hate it for them and those guys. They deserve it [the championship]. I’m sure it’s not good on the points front.”

This second place finish however, was more personal for Busch and not just because it doesn’t mean anything in the big picture. He’s not racing for a championship, sitting 13th in points with just three races remaining.

This one was personal because Busch wanted to win for someone other than himself. In 2006 he met high school student Raine Angelley, who suffered from polycystic kidney disease. Busch and wife Samantha struck up a relationship with the young man, calling his family and offering both financial assistance and Angelley the chance to work for them.

Angelley received both a kidney and liver transplant during the last few years, but he passed away this week. The Busch’s never gave up on Angelley and will never forget him, which is why Busch did all he could to best honor him in Victory Lane on Sunday.

“We worked as hard as we could and we had an angel riding with us today and weren’t able to capitalize for Raine and his family, the loss they had earlier this week,” said Busch. “Raine was a kid Samantha and I took under our wings about a year ago, kidney issues, liver issues, passed away this week.

“It’s heavy hearts for all of us. Wish we could have won him one.”