Sprint Cup Race Recap: Kyle Busch WIns Tire-Plagued Auto Club 400 by Justin Tucker Kyle Busch avoided what much of the field couldnt Sunday, charging to his first win of the season in a green-white-checkered finish in Sundays Auto Club 400. NASCARs lone race in southern California this season had a lone problem that stuck out - flat left-side tires - but Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing avoided the plague and had the push on a final restart to get the job done. Busch, after surging to the front held off a mighty charge from rookie phenom Kyle Larson to score his second consecutive Fontana win, the 29th Cup Series victory of his career. The Las Vegas, Nevada native became the fifth different winner of 2014, all while virtually securing his spot in the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup. “Holy cow, what do you expect when you have a green-white-checkered finish and everyone comes down pit road to put on four tires, Busch said. That’s a Days of Thunder thing right there. ‘What do you mean, there’s two laps to go, everybody is to pit, Cole. I came off the fourth turn in disbelief that we won this thing, because we were mediocre all day. It was really weird for us, not a race that were typically used to. But, now theres a load off your shoulders -- you can go out the rest of the season and race the way you want to. When asked about his battle with Larson, Busch gave the 21-year-old rookie tons of praise post-race. What a shoe that boy is, Busch said of the rookie, who won his first career Nationwide race the day before. Larson continued his meteoric rise by scoring his best career Cup Series finish of second. Larson would charge from ninth on the final restart, moving to the back bumper of Busch in turn 4 but came up just short this time in the battle between the two. Yeah, its been a really good weekend, said Larson. I guess you couldnt ask for more, but was surprised to get up there late in the race. We were probably a 12th-place car for most of the day. I dont know where everybody went, but I somehow ended up in second and it entered my mind, We might sweep the weekend. The story of the day in the Auto Club 400 was a rash of tire failures that plagued many favorites near the front of the pack. Six-time champion Jimmie Johnson was one of the last, most notable victims. He was cruising towards a sixth victory at the speedway when the left-front tire gave out on his No. 48 Chevrolet with seven laps to go, forcing him to pit road. Johnson would wind up 24th despite leading a race-high 104 laps on the afternoon. Kevin Harvick would also suffer a similar fate as Johnson. Two tire failures would negate any chance for a solid finish for the No. 4 car, leaving Harvick to settle for a 36th-place finish, two laps down. And those were just some of the faster cars victimized by tires unable to hold up. The list was long, as many other teams would have issues running on the weathered, two-mile oval. After the race, Goodyear attributed the failures on NASCARs new aerodynamic package which attributes to higher speeds and more stress on the tires. That stress was evident on the bumpy backstretch of Auto Club Speedway, which is where many left-sides officially got torn up. The problems caused the final caution, with Clint Bowyer spinning out in Turn 4, nursing a flat while Jeff Gordon was comfortably out front. But Gordon lost track position on the ensuing yellow-flag stops, dropping outside the top 5 while the lead turned over to underdog Landon Cassill. Cassill, who stayed out on old tires was a sitting duck on the restart, with Kyle Busch able to thread through traffic and come right from Row 3 straight to the front. Among those Busch passed were his brother, Kurt, who earned a season-best finish of third. Kyles teammate, Matt Kenseth, was fourth while Tony Stewart was fifth with his second consecutive top-5 result, taking only two fresh tires on that crucial final stop. Jamie McMurray finished in sixth, while Brian Vickers was seventh, recovering from a midrace speeding penalty to drive through the pack. AJ Allmendinger finished eighth, an impressive performance for JTG Daugherty while Paul Menard came from the rear of the field to run ninth. Carl Edwards rounded out the top-10 performers. A look at Sundays Auto Club 400 by the numbers. There were a record 35 lead changes among 15 different drivers and nine cautions for 42 laps would slow the race pace to 132.987 MPH. Next Sunday, the Sprint Cup Series heads to the world famous paper clip of Martinsville Speedway for the STP 500. Green flag is scheduled for 1:13 PM ET. Justin Tucker is a Newsletter Contributor at Frontstretch. To reach Justin, please contact Newsletter Manager Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 22:55:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015