Kurt Busch Wins Kobalt Tools 500

Kurt Busch celebrates in Victory Lane after winning his third NASCAR Sprint Cup series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)NASCAR Media Report
Kurt Busch won two races Sunday: the Kobalt Tools 500 and the Carl Edwards 25.

In a race that went 16 laps—nearly 25 miles—past its scheduled distance, after Edwards retaliated against Brad Keselowski for an incident earlier in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Busch took advantage of a strong restart to grab the lead during the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag restart and crossed the finish line .482 seconds ahead of runner-up Matt Kenseth.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who was closing in on Busch near the end of the regulation 325 laps, finished third but lost his chance to battle for the victory when Edwards hit Keselowski’s No. 12 Dodge on the frontstretch and sent it flying on Lap 323.

Keselowski’s car landed on its roof in the tri-oval, righted itself and slid into the Turn 1 wall. After extensive clean-up, NASCAR restarted the race on Lap 332—without Edwards, who was black-flagged on Lap 326—with Busch assuming the lead from Clint Bowyer, who had taken the point on a two-tire pit stop under caution on Lap 324.

Before Busch could take the white flag, however, a seven-car pileup in Turn 3 caused the 11th caution of the race and set up the second try at the green-white-checkered.

Edwards’ aggression toward Keselowski was payback for a Lap 40 wreck in Turn 2, where Edwards felt Keselowski didn’t give him enough room.

“Brad knows the deal between him and I,” said Edwards, who returned to the track on Lap 191 after losing 150 laps in the garage. “The scary part was that his car went airborne, which was not at all what I expected.

“At the end of the day, we come out to race, and people got to have respect for one another. I have a lot of respect for people’s safety, and I wish that wouldn’t have gone like it did, but I’m glad he’s OK. We’ll just go on and race some more, and maybe him and I won’t have any more incidents together—that’d be the best thing.”

The wreck, with Keselowski running sixth at the time, was eerily similar to a collision involving the two drivers last April at Talladega, where Keselowski held his line at the bottom of the track and won the race after Edwards No. 99 Ford flew into the catch fence, injuring eight spectators.

“He cut down on me on a restart, and I lifted (off the accelerator), and I couldn’t lift fast enough for him,” Keselowski said of the Lap 40 wreck. “I lifted for him to let him in, but I was there. I don’t know what more you could do.

“I apologized to him, but there’s nothing I could do in that situation, and to come back and just intentionally wreck someone—that’s not cool. It could have killed somebody in the grandstands. I know that it’s a little ironic that it’s got me saying that, but at least I didn’t do it intentionally when it happened.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball. If they’re going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone, either in the cars or in the grandstand.”

Busch claimed the 21st victory of his career and his first with crew chief Steve Addington, who joined Penske Racing during the offseason after guiding Busch’s brother, Kyle, to 12 victories in 2008 and 2009 with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“With Steve Addington, all of his new ideas, I never knew how we could mesh them together and how soon we were able to do it,” Busch said. “Even on those restarts at the end, I just felt like we had the car to beat.”

Fourth-place finisher Kasey Kahne led the most laps (144), but his car tightened at the end of the race. Paul Menard ran fifth and AJ Allmendinger sixth, giving Richard Petty Motorsports a 4-5-6 finish, the organization’s best result since announcing a switch from Dodge to Ford late last year.

Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Scott Speed completed the top 10.

Notes: Dale Earnhardt Jr. regained two lost laps during the last two cautions and finished 15th. He’s 13th in the Cup standings, seven points out of 12th, the last Chase-eligible position. … Harvick retained the points lead by 26 over Kenseth and 59 over Biffle.

----

Unofficial Race Results for the Kobalt Tools 500 - Sunday, March 7, 2010
Atlanta Motor Speedway - Hampton, GA - 1.54 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 341 Laps - 525.14 Miles - Purse: $4,965,089

Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 11 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 341 190 5 133.3 $176,498 Running 6 129
2 14 17 Matt Kenseth Valvoline Ford 341 170 107.9 $170,151 Running
3 3 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet 341 170 5 118.0 $149,306 Running 1 3
4 6 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Ford 341 170 10 138.1 $146,890 Running 8 144
5 23 98 Paul Menard CertainTeed/Menards Ford 341 160 5 88.7 $100,750 Running 1 1
6 25 43 A J Allmendinger Best Buy/Insignia Ford 341 150 99.9 $120,926 Running
7 26 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 341 146 89.6 $117,623 Running
8 13 16 Greg Biffle U.S. Census Ford 341 142 94.3 $88,525 Running
9 35 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet 341 138 66.7 $127,776 Running
10 32 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Toyota 341 134 71.2 $97,398 Running
11 12 47 Marcos Ambrose Lance/Tom's Toyota 341 130 84.9 $106,973 Running
12 16 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet 341 127 103.6 $128,178 Running
13 15 14 Tony Stewart Office Depot Chevrolet 341 124 99.3 $114,198 Running
14 38 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 341 121 53.0 $84,925 Running
15 1 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet 341 118 88.0 $92,425 Running
16 34 21 Bill Elliott Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford 341 120 5 56.3 $73,575 Running 1 1
17 7 39 Ryan Newman Tornados Chevrolet 341 112 67.3 $103,604 Running
18 5 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont/National Guard Chevrolet 341 109 97.2 $119,426 Running
19 8 19 Elliott Sadler Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford 341 111 5 60.4 $83,450 Running 1 1
20 22 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 341 108 5 75.1 $111,815 Running 1 1
21 20 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 341 105 5 106.4 $91,200 Running 5 32
22 21 71 Bobby Labonte TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet Chevrolet 341 97 54.0 $74,575 Running
23 18 33 Clint Bowyer BB&T Chevrolet 341 99 5 64.3 $83,225 Running 1 4
24 30 36 Mike Bliss Wave Energy Drink Chevrolet 341 96 5 49.4 $70,775 Running 1 1
25 2 18 Kyle Busch M&M's Toyota 341 93 5 72.8 $125,556 Running 3 22
26 37 38 David Gilliland Charter Air Transport/Taco Bell Ford 341 90 5 54.6 $92,710 Running 1 1
27 19 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Toyota 341 82 79.9 $79,275 Running
28 36 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge 340 79 62.7 $81,025 Running
29 24 1 Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet 340 76 63.1 $107,479 Running
30 40 34 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver's Ford 339 73 39.3 $74,200 Running
31 41 37 Kevin Conway # Extenze Ford 334 70 30.5 $88,698 Running
32 42 26 Boris Said Sacred Power/Southern Pride Trucking Ford 333 67 31.5 $77,525 Running
33 4 5 Mark Martin Hendrickcars.com/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 331 64 58.5 $90,650 Accident
34 31 13 Max Papis GEICO Toyota 329 61 33.2 $69,375 Running
35 29 20 Joey Logano Home Depot Toyota 323 58 43.0 $105,580 Running
36 28 12 Brad Keselowski Mopar/FLO TV Dodge Dodge 322 55 76.5 $96,065 Accident
37 17 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 211 52 53.1 $77,270 Running
38 33 87 Joe Nemechek FrontRowJoe.com Toyota 175 54 5 37.6 $69,235 Clutch 1 1
39 10 99 Carl Edwards Scotts Ford 170 46 53.0 $105,023 Parked
40 9 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 167 43 63.9 $99,566 Overheating
41 27 66 Dave Blaney PRISM Motorsports Toyota 48 40 31.9 $69,115 Brakes
42 43 55 Michael McDowell PRISM Motorsports Toyota 37 37 28.4 $69,065 Transmission
43 39 7 Robby Gordon Warner Music Nashville/Blake Shelton Toyota 3 34 25.3 $80,702 Accident