Busch beats Johnson in G-W-C at Michigan

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Aug. 21 in Brooklyn, Mich. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR)by Reid Spencer (Sporting News Wire Service)
Michigan finally unrolled the welcome mat for Kyle Busch, the first official member of the 2011 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Busch got his first Sprint Cup Series victory at Michigan International Speedway in his 14th start at the 2.0-mile track, holding off Jimmie Johnson in a green-white-checkered-flag finish to win Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400.

Busch beat Johnson to the finish line by .568 seconds to claim his series-best fourth victory of the season and the 23rd of his career. Busch kept Johnson winless at Michigan, one of five active tracks on the Cup circuit where the five-time champion hasn’t been to victory lane.

Brad Keselowski continued his recent surge with a third-place run, followed by Mark Martin and Ryan Newman. Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth completed the top 10.

Busch clinched his berth in the Chase by virtue of the fourth win, which guarantees him at least a wild-card berth in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff. He also claimed sole possession of the series lead, by 10 points over Johnson, after Carl Edwards finished 36th because of electrical problems and dropped from a share of first to fourth in the standings.

“It’s awesome,” Busch said. “That’s what we wanted. We wanted make sure that we could come out here and win races and have the opportunity to go for broke.”

Busch’s car wasn’t particularly good in practice on Saturday, but that changed dramatically when he and crew chief Dave Rogers put their heads together after the final session.

“Yesterday we practiced, we struggled a bit, and I kind of got down on things, and Dave was right there to help me out and pick it up,” Busch said. “We went over things last night and talked a lot about what we could do to the car to make it better, thought smartly about our changes for today, and we came out here strong.”

Busch held a comfortable lead over Johnson when Kurt Busch’s brush with the Turn 2 wall on Lap 197 caused the fifth and final caution of the race and forced a restart that took the event three laps past its scheduled distance of 200 laps.

By ducking into the pits for his final stop right before caution flew for the fourth time on Lap 168—after Dave Blaney slowed to a crawl on the backstretch—Johnson got his fuel and tire service out of the way and inherited the lead when everyone ahead of him came to the pits under the yellow.

Johnson chose the outside lane for a restart on Lap 173 and used the clean air to his advantage, pulling away to a lead of more than a second before Busch began to cut into his advantage. On Lap 188, Busch cleared Johnson into Turn 1 with what turned out to be the winning pass.

“(The car) was just really loose at the start of the race, and I drove up through the field, and (crew chief) Chad (Knaus) made a great call to get me to pit road before that caution came out,” Johnson said. “It gave us the shot at the win, but once I was up front in the clean air the balance of the car was a bit too loose.

“I got away from Kyle but I was loose, and I knew he was going to come at some point and he showed up. Disappointed that I didn’t win, but a very good effort for the Lowe’s team especially when you look at where we started the race (19th) and where we finished.”

As good a day as it was for Busch, it was every bit as bad for Denny Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. Hamlin brought his car to pit road on Lap 122 after scraping the wall in Turns 1 and 2. Hamlin finished 35th and dropped from 12th to 14th in the standings.

Though Hamlin still holds the second provisional wild-card spot, thanks to his victory at Michigan in June, he lost ground to the drivers pursuing him—one-time winners Paul Menard (18th) and David Ragan (20th).

Note: Busch is the fourth qualifier for the Sprint Summer Showdown, in which the winners of the five races leading up to the Sept. 4 event at Atlanta can earn a total of $3 million for themselves, a charity and a race fan ($1 million each) by winning that race.

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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Number 23
Unofficial Race Results for the 42Nd Annual Pure Michigan 400 - Sunday, August 21, 2011
Michigan International Speedway - Brooklyn, MI - 2 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 203 Laps - 406 Miles - Purse: $5,079,398

Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 17 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 203 47 4 $204,941 Running 2 22
2 19 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 203 43 1 $175,661 Running 1 18
3 6 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Dodge 203 41 $136,108 Running
4 5 5 Mark Martin CARQUEST / GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 203 41 1 $108,975 Running 1 2
5 3 39 Ryan Newman WIX Filters Chevrolet 203 39 $139,600 Running
6 9 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet 203 39 1 $125,586 Running 3 50
7 14 4 Kasey Kahne Red Bull Toyota 203 38 1 $110,508 Running 1 3
8 35 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet 203 36 $134,358 Running
9 18 14 Tony Stewart Mobil 1 / Office Depot Chevrolet 203 35 $125,758 Running
10 2 17 Matt Kenseth Kroger Ford 203 35 1 $128,511 Running 4 15
11 29 43 AJ Allmendinger Best Buy Ford 203 33 $120,136 Running
12 7 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 203 32 $91,325 Running
13 30 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing / Farm American Chevrolet 203 31 $108,120 Running
14 8 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet 203 30 $90,000 Running
15 28 47 Bobby Labonte Kingsford / Bush's Baked Beans Toyota 203 29 $109,120 Running
16 26 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 203 28 $107,139 Running
17 32 31 Jeff Burton CAT Financial Chevrolet 203 27 $87,475 Running
18 12 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 203 26 $106,958 Running
19 15 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Auto Parts Toyota 203 25 $86,650 Running
20 1 16 Greg Biffle Pure Michigan Ford 203 26 2 $106,850 Running 5 86
21 23 20 Joey Logano The Home Depot Toyota 203 23 $85,925 Running
22 24 29 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John's Chevrolet 203 22 $123,236 Running
23 10 1 Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats Chevrolet 203 21 $113,839 Running
24 20 21 Trevor Bayne(i) JDRF / Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford 203 0 $77,175 Running
25 25 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet 203 19 $115,358 Running
26 11 27 Paul Menard Duracell / Menards Chevrolet 203 18 $84,500 Running
27 16 9 Marcos Ambrose Stanley Ford 203 17 $106,266 Running
28 27 38 Travis Kvapil(i) Long John Silver's Ford 202 0 $91,133 Running 2 3
29 38 71 Andy Lally # Interstate Moving Services Ford 202 16 1 $82,450 Running 1 3
30 42 32 Ken Schrader KOMA Unwind Ford 202 14 $86,383 Running
31 33 51 Landon Cassill(i) PhoenixConstruction/ThankATeacherToday Chev 201 0 $82,297 Running
32 39 34 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 201 12 $72,650 Running
33 34 36 Dave Blaney Accell Construction Chevrolet 198 11 $73,525 Running
34 13 22 Kurt Busch Shell Pennzoil Dodge 197 10 $117,050 Accident
35 4 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 188 9 $120,475 Running
36 22 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 174 8 $118,266 Running
37 21 13 Casey Mears GEICO Toyota 32 8 1 $72,225 Vibration 1 1
38 41 37 Tony Raines Front Row Motorsports Ford 26 6 $72,125 Rear Gear
39 40 66 Todd Bodine(i) HP Racing Toyota 21 0 $72,075 Electrical
40 36 30 David Stremme Inception Motorsports Chevrolet 20 4 $72,025 Clutch
41 37 87 Joe Nemechek(i) NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 18 0 $71,970 Ignition
42 43 60 Mike Skinner(i) Big Red Toyota 14 0 $71,895 Electrical
43 31 55 JJ Yeley Front Row Motorsports Ford 11 1 $71,465 Electrical

Race Comments: Before an estimated attendance of 81,000, Kyle Busch won the Pure Michigan 400, his 23rd NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. Prior to the green flag, the following car dropped to the rear for the reason indicated: No. 32 (transmission change).

Failed to Qualify: (3) 7 Johnny Sauter (i), 46 Erik Darnell, 50 TJ Bell.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 41 Mins, 26 Secs. Average Speed: 150.898 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.568 Seconds

Caution Flags: 5 for 21 laps: Laps: 30-34 (Debris [32]); 54-57 (#47 spin turn 2 [34]); 104-107 (Debris [38]); 169-172 (#36 slowed on track [00]); 198-201 (#1, 22 accident turn 2 [42]).

Lead Changes: 20 among 10 drivers: G. Biffle 1-29; T. Kvapil(i) 30-31; C. Mears 32; G. Biffle 33-50; M. Kenseth 51-53; G. Biffle 54; T. Kvapil(i) 55; M. Martin 56-57; G. Biffle 58-88; A. Lally # 89-91; G. Biffle 92-98; Kyle Busch 99-104; K. Kahne 105-107; M. Kenseth 108-113; J. Gordon 114-124; M. Kenseth 125-126; J. Gordon 127-139; M. Kenseth 140-143; J. Gordon 144-169; J. Johnson 170-187; Kyle Busch 188-203.