DARLINGTON, S.C.
Let ’em boo. It just might make Kyle Busch go faster.
Greeted with a thundering chorus of boos before the race by the pro-Dale Earnhardt Jr. crowd at Darlington Raceway, Busch brushed it off and dusted the field to win his third NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the season.
Busch rallied , coming from the middle of pack when he had to pit a second time for a loose lugnut before the halfway point. He cut through the field. The performance also helped Busch retain his points lead with the series heading into the all-star race next week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
“I can’t tell you how proud of you guys I am,’’ Busch radioed his crew as he drove to the finish line.
Carl Edwards finished second with Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt and David Ragan completing the top five. Gordon’s run moved him to 10th in points – the first time he’s been in the top 10 since Martinsville in late March.
Matt Kenseth, who had not finished better than 38th in the last three races, finished sixth. Denny Hamlin placed seventh with Travis Kvapil eighth. Dave Blaney placed ninth for his first top-10 finish of the season for the Bill Davis Racing team. Jeff Burton took 10th place. Burton continued two streaks. He’s run every lap this season and has not finished worse than 13th .
Busch raced with Earnhardt at times during the race to the crowd’s excitement , but nothing happened like last week at Richmond when they made contact racing for the lead in the final laps. This time, they gave each other plenty of room on the narrow track.
Other drivers, though, didn’t have as good of a night.
Pole-sitter Greg Biffle’s car was among the strongest until he slowed on lap 233 and headed to the pits with an engine problem. It wasn’t a surprise, as Biffle radioed a few laps earlier that “we’re never going to make it.”
Biffle, who led 95 laps, also struggled with a loose wheel earlier in the race.
“We know we’ve got good race cars,” Biffle said after exiting the car. “We can’t keep the wheels tight. I don’t know why. I give it 110 percent as a driver all the time and you just want your equipment to last and be able to win these races. It makes it so hard to swallow when it’s self-induced like that.”
Kevin Harvick, who entered the race fifth in the points, saw his hopes to win fade when he bounced off the wall on lap 148.
Tony Stewart’s race all but ended on the second lap when Elliott Sadler crashed into him, sending Stewart into the
turn 1 wall.
“I just made a huge mistake,” Sadler said. “I just went too low into turn 1. I was actually trying to give Tony more room, and I just got loose under him and spun up into him. I’ve never had any problem with Tony. I know he’s pretty upset with me right now. It’s my fault. I apologize to all his fans.”
Stewart, who won Friday’s Nationwide race for his first victory at Darlington, stayed on the lead lap as his crew made repairs but fell a lap behind on lap 50.