Victorious debut for Busch
Add a Busch Series victory to Kurt Busch’s already impressive championship resume.
Already with a season title and 15 victories in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series, Busch stepped down and drove in his first Busch Series race Saturday. He led the final 70 laps at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
Cup regulars have won all seven Busch races and led all but 55 laps this season. Busch, making his debut in the No. 39 Penske Dodge that Ryan Newman also drives, is the seventh different Busch winner this season.
Busch celebrated with the obligatory burnout along the frontstretch before getting out of his car. After an awkward headfirst dive into the infield grass, he rolled over and did “snow angels” in the bright, warm sunshine. It was similar to his celebration on the finish line at Bristol two weekends ago.
“Man, I had no idea what to expect,” said Busch, who kissed the hood of his car before driving it to Victory Lane. “These guys are awesome. This is a farm team.”
Greg Biffle, in one of six Roush cars, had his third straight second-place Busch finish in Texas. He finished 0.266 seconds behind the winner, and couldn’t pass on either of the last three restarts – the last a green-white-checker on lap 205, the fifth extra lap in the O’Reilly 300.
“At the end, I’d get behind Kurt, I’d get close to him,” Biffle said. “I tried everything. I pulled out the whole handbook and I couldn’t really do a lot with him.”
Casey Mears was third, and Kyle Busch – the winner’s 20-year-old brother – finished fourth. Matt Kenseth was fifth, followed by Jeff Burton and Paul Menard, the highest-finishing non-Cup regular in seventh.
The last driver to win in his Busch Series debut was Terry Labonte at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 1985. Ricky Rudd did it in 1983, and Joe Ruttman and Dale Earnhardt did it in the Busch Series’ inaugural season in 1982, Earnhardt winning the first race.
Kurt Busch was the season runner-up and won four races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series for Jack Roush in 2000, when he also ran seven Cup races. He moved to the Cup series full time the next year, and his season championship came in 2004. He moved to Penske’s Cup team this season.
“I never really had the right approach from Roush,” Busch said. “I wanted to be able to develop a team and go out there for at least seven races, and maybe 10. An offer never came together properly. Penske came to me with a great program, a great structure.”
Champ Car
Sebastien Bourdais shows no signs of slowing down.
After two straight Champ Car World Series titles, the 27-year-old Frenchman appears just as motivated as the first day he drove one of the 750-horsepower cars in 2003.
The defending champ in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (Calif.) continued his success on the downtown street circuit, backing up his provisional pole from the previous day by setting a track record in winning the 19th pole of his Champ Car career.
“The whole team made a great effort over the winter to improve and this is just the payoff,” Bourdais said after getting around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn course 1 minute, 6.886 seconds (105.924 mph). That easily broke the mark of 1:07.485 (104.983) set last year by Paul Tracy.
It is the ninth Long Beach pole for the powerful Newman/Haas Racing team that also includes third-place Bruno Junqueira.
Englishman Justin Wilson was second and teammate A.J. Allmendinger was fourth.