Nothing went Kyle Busch's way at Lowe's
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(AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Kyle Busch seemingly had the car to beat in the Coca-Cola 600, but when the rain covers were put on, the No. 18 was not in first place.
CONCORD, N.C. -- Kyle Busch's canned postrace quotes didn't sound hostile, but somewhere deep down you know he's fuming.
Busch dominated Monday's rain-delayed Coca-Cola 600 as he has many races this season, leading 173 of 227 laps, of which only 187 were under the green flag.
He finished sixth.
Maybe this 24-year-old is snakebit, as snakebit as one can be with three wins in the first 12 races. He led a race-high 88 laps in the Daytona 500 before getting caught up in an accident not of his making and finishing 41st. He had another powerful car at Talladega, leading 42 laps, but finished 25th.
He easily had the best car on short runs Monday at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and with a few adjustments for the long run would have been the favorite to win had the race gone the full 400 laps.
What had to really sting was watching David Reutimann, who didn't lead a lap under green, take the 50th anniversary trophy because he had enough fuel to stay out under the final caution.
That Busch didn't want to pit had to hurt even more. He told crew chief Steve Addington over the in-car radio that he wanted to stay out, but Addington told his driver fuel was an issue and convinced him the race would return to green.
The good news was by the time they called this one nobody in the media could blame Busch, who has been criticized for avoiding reporters after such frustrating days, had he been long gone. And he actually hung around to answer a few questions.
"Weather … you can't do anything about it really," Busch said in quotes gathered by Toyota. "We knew it was coming, we knew it was here, but we weren't going to be able to ride around under caution for more than five laps. We had to come down and put gas in it."
He sounds too calm here.
But deep inside you know he's seething about not getting the opportunity to win.
Addington wasn't happy that NASCAR called the race so early, either.
"I was looking at the radar all day long and the rain would get close to us and break up, we'd get a few little sprinkles in and they'd stop the race," he said. "I thought we'd wait to later than 6:30 to call this since they do have lights here.
"I'm running a different race than they [NASCAR] are running. I'm racing against the guys that we raced against all day long and if it went back green, we were sitting in the catbird seat again."
Addington wasn't the only person ready to hang around to see if the rain subsided. Chad Knaus, the crew chief for three-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, hoped officials would wait until at least until 9 p.m. before giving up.
Points leader Jeff Gordon thought he had better than a 14th-place finish in his car.
"Boy, I sure hope that's the plan because the [No. 24] is coming," he said before the race was called.
Kasey Kahne, who had closed within a second of Busch, was confident he could win NASCAR's longest race for the second straight year.
"We had a great shot at winning the 600 again," he said. "Man, we were close."
About the only person happy to see NASCAR call the race, outside of Reutimann, was Dale Earnhardt Jr. The sport's most popular driver was two laps down in 40th place with an ill-handling car that wasn't likely to improve.
His finish all but assured he won't make the Chase. He is 19th in points, 203 behind the 12th and final spot occupied by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin.
Busch will make the Chase. He's sixth, 182 behind Gordon. But somewhere the driver who has led a series-high 789 laps has to be fuming, knowing he could be so much better.
Nationwide Series: Bliss does his own rain dance, costing Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch II. Rowdy has three wins this season. He easily could have six.
He dominated Saturday's rain-shortened race, leading 98 of the first 148 laps. But he was shuffled back during the final caution and that left Mike Bliss in the lead when the wet stuff ended everybody's night 22 laps later.
Two weeks before at Darlington, a flat tire suffered during a late caution while Busch was in the lead cost him the win.
At Bristol, a late pit-road mistake dropped him from first to fifth.
"Just very, very frustrating to be one of the fastest cars week in and week out and not have anything to show for it," Busch said.
How fast? Busch has led 963 of a possible 2,100 laps this season. That's an amazing 45.8 percent.
Carl Edwards, who is second in points, has led only 380 laps.
"Yeah, I may have stolen it," Bliss said. "But that's OK. I don't care. [Busch] had the best car, but he wins too much and nobody likes him anyway."
Camping World Truck Series: It's off to Dover
The series took a weekend off but resumes on Friday with an 8 p.m. ET race at Dover.
David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
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Sprint Cup Series
Reutimann
- David Reutimann won the rain-shortened Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway after a strategic move that resulted in his first series victory. Reutimann was 14th when the rain came, but elected not to pit and took over the lead before the final red flag for rain was displayed. Reutimann posted his first career victory in his 75th series start. He started 21st. Reutimann completed 227 of the 400 laps. The last time the 600 was shortened by rain was in 2003 when Jimmie Johnson won with 276 of 400 laps completed. Reutimann became the eighth different winner in 12 races this season, joining Kyle Busch (3), Mark Martin (2) and Matt Kenseth (2), and Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch with one each. Reutimann led once, for the final five laps, all under caution.
- Reutimann scored his first victory in five races at Lowe's. His previous best Lowe's finish was 10th in this race one year ago. He is the sixth first-time winner of the 600, joining Gordon, David Pearson, Bobby Labonte, Kenseth and Casey Mears.
- This is the first victory for Michael Waltrip Racing. It is the third team to score its first victory in the Coca-Cola 600, joining Paul McDuffie Racing (Joe Lee Johnson, 1960) and Rahmoc (Neil Bonnett, 1983).
- Reutimann climbed from 15th to 13th in points, just six points behind 12th-place Mark Martin. Reutimann has ranked among the top 15 all season.
- This is the first series victory for Toyota at Lowe's. This is the first time that the No. 00 has won a NASCAR race. The previous best finish by the No. 00 was third by Junior Johnson at Martinsville in April 1964.
- The last postponed series race came at Richmond on Sept. 7, 2008, when the Saturday night race was moved to Sunday.
- This was the second rain-shortened race in 2009. They ran 152 of 200 laps at Daytona.
- This was the eighth Coca-Cola 600 run on May 25 -- three have been rain-shortened, 1968 (won by Buddy Baker), 1997 (Jeff Gordon) and 2003 (Jimmie Johnson).
- This was just the 23rd time in 101 races at Lowe's the race was won from a starting position outside the top 10.
- Kyle Busch led the most laps (173). He has led over 2,000 laps in NASCAR competition this season.
- Ryan Newman (finished second) scored his sixth top-10 finish in 2009, all in the last eight races. Newman has scored top-5 finishes in the last four races. He climbed from eighth to seventh in the points standings, his highest points ranking of the season. Newman was 15th before the caution and one of three drivers who elected to stay out, thus advancing his position.
- Robby Gordon (third) scored his best finish of the season. It was his best finish since he finished second at Watkins Glen in August 2005. Gordon was 24th before the caution and one of three drivers who elected to stay out, thus advancing his position.
- Carl Edwards (fourth) posted his seventh top-10 finish in nine races at Lowe's. Edwards scored just his second top-5 finish of the season. He had five top-5 finishes after 12 races one year ago. He climbed from 12th to 11th in points.
- Brian Vickers (fifth) tied his best finish of the season set at Atlanta. He climbed from 17th to 16th in points.
- Joey Logano (ninth) was the highest finishing rookie of the three rookies in the race. Logano celebrated his 19th birthday Sunday. This is the fourth time this season that a rookie has scored a top-10 finish. Logano matched his career-best finish of ninth for the third time this season, all in the last four races.
- Jimmie Johnson (13th) has led in 10 of the 12 races this season including the Coca-Cola 600, more than any other driver. Johnson remained fourth in points.
- Jeff Gordon (14th) remained the leader of the series points standings, by 44 over Tony Stewart, who finished 19th. Gordon has finished 14th or better in 10 of the 12 races this season.
- Bill Elliott finished 15th in his 800th series race. He is one of just seven drivers to make 800 or more career series starts, joining Richard Petty (1,185), Ricky Rudd (906), Dave Marcis (883), Terry Labonte (862), Kyle Petty (829) and Darrell Waltrip (809).
- Jeff Burton (25th) ended a nine-race streak of top-15 finishes since Las Vegas.
- Clint Bowyer (36th) has finished 18th or worse in his last six races. He has dropped from second to 17th in the points during that six-race period.
- Scott Riggs finished 38th in his 175th series race.
- Forty-two of the 43 cars were running at the finish, the most in any race at Lowe's.
- This was the fourth victory for Toyota in 2009. Chevrolet has five wins, Ford has two and Dodge has one.
- The top 10 consisted of five Toyotas, two Chevrolets, two Fords and one Dodge.
Bliss
- Mike Bliss won the Nationwide Series CarQuest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, which had a delayed start due to a late afternoon rain shower and finished with more rain on Lap 170 of 200. Bliss started from the rear. The last driver to win from the rear after an engine change at Lowe's was Jeff Burton in October 2007. The last driver to win from the rear of any race was Carl Edwards at Memphis last October for a driver change.
- Bliss posted his second series victory in his 154th career start. He became the eighth series winner in 2009. His first series victory came at Lowe's in October 2004. This was his second victory in nine races at Lowe's. He led three times for 21 laps, including the final four.
- This was the 12th victory for Phoenix Racing. Phoenix Racing's last win came at Milwaukee in June 2005, when Johnny Sauter won when the race was shortened after 200 of the 250 scheduled laps. Bliss is the sixth different driver to win for Phoenix Racing.
- The last rain-shortened race was at Montreal last August, won by Ron Fellows.
- Chevrolet posted its third win in 11 races in 2009. Ford and Toyota each have four wins this season.
- Kyle Busch, the points leader by 37 entering the race over Carl Edwards, finished third. Despite his second-place qualifying effort, Busch started at the rear of the field because of an engine change. He now leads the points by 73 over Edwards, who finished 10th. Busch scored his 22nd top-three finish in his last 41 series races.
- Edwards has finished second, third and 10th in the past three series races.
- Brendan Gaughan (finished second) posted his career-best finish. He was the highest-finishing rookie of the year contender of the seven rookies in the race.
- Jason Leffler (sixth) has scored 10 straight top-15 finishes, extending a streak that began at California in February. Leffler has finished in the top 10 in the past six series races, extending a streak that began at Nashville.
- Brad Keselowski (eighth) extended a streak of eight consecutive top-15 finishes that began at Bristol. Keselowski was in his third car of the weekend after crashing two cars in practice. Keselowski finished 22nd, 27th and 27th in the first three races of the season before posting his first top-15 finish of the season.
- The top 10 consisted of four Chevrolets, two Fords and four Toyotas.