Updated at 8:24 a.m., Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Autos: Kurt Busch wins NASCAR race at Michigan
Associated Press
BROOKLYN, Mich. — Kurt Busch won for the second time in three races, dominating in the second half today to capture the Nextel Cup event at Michigan International Speedway that had twice been postponed because of rain.In winning the 3M Peformance 400, he resumed his late-season charge to a spot in NASCAR's Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. The 2004 Cup champion solidified his berth in the 12-man lineup for the upcoming Chase, holding off Martin Truex Jr. in the closing laps for the 17th win of his career.
A spin by Greg Biffle with just two laps remaining sent the race into overtime. But Busch, driving a Dodge for Penske Racing, easily pulled away from Truex's DEI Chevrolet when the green flag waved for a two-lap shootout on lap 202.
Busch, who didn't take his first lead until lap 101 and wound up leading four times for 92 laps, beat Truex to the finish by 0.495-seconds _ about eight car-lengths on the high-banked, 2-mile oval.
The race was originally scheduled to be run Sunday, but two days of rain kept the cars off the track until Tuesday morning. Other than a 32-minute delay because of fog after the first 10 laps, the race was run without any more weather problems.
With just three races remaining until the start of the 10-race stock car playoff, Busch remains 12th in the standings, 33 points behind Truex. Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumped past Ryan Newman, Busch's Penske Racing teammate, into 13th, but a slow pit stop late in the race cost him a top-10 finish as the fan favorite wound up 12th.
"This was a great win," said Busch, who broke a 51-race winless string two weeks ago at Pocono. "It just backs up what we did at Pocono."
