Kurt Busch Holds Off Jimmie Johnson For Dover Cup Win

Kurt Busch burns down his Goodyear Eagle tires after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400 on Sunday at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del. (Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)by Reid Spencer (Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service)
Thank you, Kurt Busch said, after screw-ups by Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards put Busch in position to win Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

While Busch celebrated his second victory of the season and the 24th of his career in victory lane at the Monster Mile, runner-up Johnson and third-place Edwards sat in the nearby media center castigating themselves in the postrace news conference.

Johnson stumbled on the last two restarts of the race, allowing Busch to take and retain a lead he held for the final 42 laps. Edwards trashed his own winning chances by speeding on pit road in a timed section he and crew chief Bob Osborne had discussed specifically before the race.

In a sense, though, all three drivers were winners. Busch, Johnson and Edwards took advantage of the struggles of Tony Stewart, who led the series after wins in the first two races of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Fighting the handling of his No. 14 Chevrolet throughout the afternoon, Stewart lost his advantage in the standings by finishing 25th, two laps down. That left Edwards and 10th-place finisher Kevin Harvick tied for the series lead, with Stewart and Busch each nine points back and Johnson alone in fifth, 13 points behind Harvick and Edwards.

Kasey Kahne ran fourth Sunday, followed by Chase drivers Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch. AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Marcos Ambrose and Harvick completed the top 10.

Busch and Johnson, who had tangled at Pocono and Richmond during NASCAR’s 26-race regular season, raced each other cleanly Sunday with Chase points on the line.

For Busch, the victory was redemption after a frustrating 22nd-place finish a week earlier at New Hampshire.

“It was just perfect execution today, with pit stops and with making the car better during the race,” Busch said. “I couldn’t be happier right now. To win a Sprint Cup race in the Chase, this is what it’s all about. This is the playoffs.

“We had everything go wrong for us last week. We had everything go right for us this week. We just need nice smooth races from here.”

Johnson passed Harvick for the lead on Lap 195 and began to assert his dominance. With crew chief Chad Knaus adjusting the No. 48 Chevrolet to rapidly changing track conditions, Johnson was the class of the field.

It helped Johnson’s cause that his primary opposition had issues on pit road. Edwards, who led 116 laps before Johnson took over, received his first speeding penalty in the Cup series this season after a green-flag stop on Lap 245.

Edwards spun his tires after shifting from first to second gear and, thinking he needed to go faster, sped up as he exited pit road—too much according to NASCAR timing and scoring. It wasn’t until Lap 300, when J.J. Yeley’s Ford smacked the wall to bring out the eighth caution, that Edwards’ No. 99 Ford got a free pass back to the lead lap as the highest-scored lapped car.

“It was a great day, other than that feeling I had when I ruined it there on pit road,” Edwards said. “That’s about as small as you can feel in a racecar. We talked about it before the race. We looked at the pit-road speeding lines and that last line. … Bob and I actually discussed the last section. It’s 25 feet, 8 inches long, and we talked about that run and how I was not going to speed through it, and I just blasted right through it.

“We were very, very fortunate. As frustrated as I am with myself for messing that up, I’m really, really grateful for the gift that was given to us with that caution and the ability to come back up there. And the other thing that was really important to me was my guys sticking behind me, because they had every right to be really, really upset with me. So it ended up being a good finish.”

Johnson led from the restart on Lap 306 until Mike Bliss spun off Turn 2 to cause the ninth caution, but Busch grabbed the top spot moments after a restart on Lap 359 and kept Johnson at bay until Greg Biffle’s collision with the frontstretch wall on Lap 361 brought out caution No. 10.

On Lap 366, Busch once more got away from Johnson on the restart and maintained a margin of five car lengths as Edwards surged past Kahne into third place on Lap 370.

“I did a really good job, up until those last two (restarts),” Johnson said. “I have to say, when you’re the leader, you have a small advantage, because you go when you want. I blew it by spinning the tires. Kurt got a good launch, and we were door to door going into (Turn) 1, and he was able to get by on the outside.

“And then the next one, I was going to try to do that same thing back to him, and I was just trying to time it when he was going to accelerate. And I didn’t time it right. And I had too big of a gap, and fell in behind him going into Turn 1.

“I put it on me, because the starts I had earlier in the day, regardless of the lane, leading or not—I cleared them typically going into 1 so, it’s on me.”

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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Number 29
Unofficial Race Results for the 42Nd Annual Aaa 400 - Sunday, October 2, 2011
Dover International Speedway - Dover, DE - 1 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 400 Laps - 400 Miles - Purse: $5,074,329

Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 2 22 Kurt Busch Shell Pennzoil Dodge 400 47 4 133.8 $223,625 Running 5 90
2 6 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's / Kobalt Tools Chevrolet 400 44 2 133.5 $220,786 Running 5 157
3 4 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 400 42 1 127.2 $180,566 Running 3 116
4 9 4 Kasey Kahne Red Bull Toyota 400 40 111.3 $142,158 Running
5 18 17 Matt Kenseth Crown Royal Ford 400 40 1 109.8 $148,311 Running 2 3
6 5 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 400 39 1 111.0 $142,266 Running 1 1
7 7 43 A J Allmendinger Best Buy Ford 400 38 1 103.1 $127,836 Running 1 8
8 27 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet 400 36 91.1 $140,558 Running
9 12 9 Marcos Ambrose Stanley Ford 400 35 98.0 $114,741 Running
10 22 29 Kevin Harvick Rheem Chasing the Cure Chevrolet 400 35 1 98.2 $129,861 Running 1 10
11 13 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 400 34 1 84.5 $89,500 Running 2 8
12 34 24 Jeff Gordon Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet 400 32 86.3 $116,786 Running
13 14 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 400 31 86.9 $107,058 Running
14 30 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 400 30 74.8 $103,964 Running
15 23 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald's Chevrolet 400 29 75.9 $111,539 Running
16 3 27 Paul Menard Pittsburgh Paints / Menards Chevrolet 400 28 78.6 $83,250 Running
17 16 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 400 27 67.5 $101,195 Running
18 11 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 400 26 72.2 $118,950 Running
19 17 5 Mark Martin GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 400 25 74.7 $82,350 Running
20 15 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Dodge 400 25 1 84.6 $98,808 Running 1 2
21 19 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 399 23 60.8 $83,350 Running
22 24 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet 398 22 60.1 $111,258 Running
23 20 39 Ryan Newman US Army ROTC Chevrolet 398 21 59.8 $113,100 Running
24 21 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet 398 20 68.7 $81,225 Running
25 28 14 Tony Stewart Office Depot / Mobil 1 Chevrolet 398 19 59.4 $115,683 Running
26 8 47 Bobby Labonte grilling.com / Kingsford Toyota 398 18 65.5 $99,145 Running
27 10 16 Greg Biffle 3M / Cubitron Ford 397 17 86.5 $87,800 Running
28 36 34 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 397 16 46.7 $87,558 Running
29 33 20 Joey Logano The Home Depot Toyota 397 15 52.0 $80,150 Running
30 1 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Auto Parts Toyota 396 15 1 70.9 $93,100 Running 1 2
31 25 51 Landon Cassill(i) PhoenixConstruction/ThankATeacherToday Chevrolet 395 0 42.5 $83,983 Running
32 41 36 Dave Blaney Golden Corral Chevrolet 395 12 39.6 $78,172 Running
33 37 71 Andy Lally # Interstate Moving Services Ford 394 11 38.1 $78,925 Running
34 43 38 J J Yeley Drive Sober. Arrive Alive Ford 390 10 34.2 $68,300 Running
35 39 13 Casey Mears GEICO Toyota 366 9 41.9 $68,075 Running
36 40 32 Mike Bliss(i) Street King Ford 346 0 39.1 $67,925 Accident 1 1
37 26 37 Josh Wise(i) MaxQ Motorsports Ford 56 0 39.5 $67,800 Brakes
38 38 7 Reed Sorenson(i) SPEED Energy / MAPEI / Menards Dodge 52 0 36.4 $67,650 Electrical 1 1
39 42 87 Joe Nemechek(i) AM FM Energy Toyota 49 0 31.9 $67,500 Clutch
40 35 66 Michael McDowell HP Racing Toyota 44 5 1 34.2 $67,325 Fuel Pump 1 1
41 31 30 David Stremme Inception Motorsports Chevrolet 31 3 30.8 $67,125 Vibration
42 29 46 Scott Speed(i) Red Line Oil / International Ford 24 0 31.7 $66,995 Brakes
43 32 55 Travis Kvapil(i) Front Row Motorsports Ford 12 0 28.3 $67,329 Ignition

Race Comments: Before an estimated attendance of 83,000, Kurt Busch won the AAA 400, his 24th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.

Failed to Qualify: (1) 60 Mike Skinner(i).

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 30 Mins, 59 Secs. Average Speed: 119.413 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.908 Seconds

Caution Flags: 10 for 44 laps: Laps: 6-8 (#11, 43 Accident Turn 3 [None]); 20-22 (Weather [None]); 42-45 (Competition [88]); 138-142 (#32 Accident Turn 1 [83]); 176-179 (Debris Turn 3 [34]); 181-184 (#47, 6 Accident Turn 2 [20]); 257-263 (Weather [31]); 301-305 (#38 Accident Turn 4 [99]); 353-358 (#32 Accident Turn 2 [2]); 363-365 (#16 Accident Frontstretch [2]).

Lead Changes: 24 among 13 drivers: M. Truex Jr. 1-2; Kurt Busch 3-41; M. Bliss(i) 42; M. McDowell 43; R. Sorenson(i) 44; Kurt Busch 45-51; C. Edwards 52-110; Kyle Busch 111; J. Johnson 112-113; B. Keselowski 114-115; C. Edwards 116-138; J. Burton 139-142; C. Edwards 143-176; A. Allmendinger 177-184; K. Harvick 185-194; J. Johnson 195-247; M. Kenseth 248; J. Burton 249-252; M. Kenseth 253-254; J. Johnson 255-300; Kurt Busch 301; J. Johnson 302-353; Kurt Busch 354; J. Johnson 355-358; Kurt Busch 359-400.