Kyle Busch Steals The Show at Texas

In a night full of changing track conditions and many comers and goers, there was one thing that remained constant throughout the race and that was Kyle Busch running up front. He led the first lap, the last lap and a bunch of them in between! The victory was the 26th of his career tying him with future HOF’er, Fred Lorenzen. The only drivers that could consistently challenge Busch were MWR’s Martin Truex Jr. and 4x NSCS champion Jeff Gordon. The three of them were in control for most of the event leading 328 of the 334 laps.

Apr 13, 2013; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle Busch (18) celebrates winning the NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The heart-breaking story of the night is a tossup between Gordon and Truex. Jeff ran down Kyle Busch for 2nd late in the event and looked posed to run down the leader before he suddenly slowed due to what looked like a flat tire. He ended up taking the car to the garage with a broken hub finishing a disappointing 38th. Truex is riding a 206 race winless streak and with 20 to go, he held 1.5 second lead over Busch but then the caution flew. The combination of holding the #1 pit stall and an 1..7 stop helped Kyle beat Truex off pit road giving him the coveted inside line on the restart. He pulled out to a sizable gap and Truex couldn’t rebound. Martin had to watch as yet another victory slipped through his fingers. It is the 6th 2nd place finish for Martin since his one and only win at Dover back in 2007. Truex failed post-race inspection for being too low and it was apparently caused by debris in the left front shock.

Bobby Labonte was very sick today but opted to start the race. He quickly fell back and was quoted saying over the radio, “I can’t freaking make it” and that was just lap 10. The veteran soldiered on for a few more laps before taking the car to the garage at what happens to be his home race. EMT’s were waiting for him and had oxygen on standby after Bobby complained that he was having trouble breathing over the radio. Mike Bliss was suppose to be the relief driver but he was still out on the track racing so the #47 car sat there driver-less for over 40 laps before the 6ft 2in Michael McDowell squeezed his way into the car. The #47 eventually retired with a mechanical failure finishing 42nd.

A scary incident occurred during the first set of pit stops when Matt Kenseth ran over a lug nut throwing sparks and igniting a fire in his pit stall. His fuel man’s foot caught flame but was quickly put out by a nearby safety worker. A surprising 39 cars were still running at the end of this 500 mile race that is historically very hard on engines. There were two major incidents during the event. One of which was when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. cut down a tire on a restart slamming into the door of Austin Dillon before spinning into the turn 3 wall. The second major incident happened during the final set of green flag stops when Marcos Ambrose spun down the backstretch off the nose of David Gilliland. Jeff Burton slammed into the rear end of Mark Martin when he checked up sending Jeff careening into the inside wall.

Look no further than Penske Racing for the team that fought the hardest today. NASCAR forced both the #2 and #22 teams to replace the rear end housings less than an hour before the green flag. They scrambled to make the change while many curious onlookers from rival teams tried to get a peek at what they had done. The #2 guys then went through tech and were able to get to the grid in time for pre-race ceremonies. Logano’s car on the other hand continued to repeatedly fail pre-race tech inspection. The engines were fired and the #22 still sat in the garage area. They finally made it but had to start from the rear of the field. A very stressed out Joey Logano vented his frustrations over the radio during the early laps of the event.

Somehow, both cars found themselves battling inside the top 10 by the end of the race and Joey even got as high as 3rd. They posted impressive finishes of 5th and 8th but while Logano was all smiles after the exhausting event, Brad was just the opposite. He was outraged by something but he was unclear as to what exactly had him so riled up. Keselowski was irate swearing multiple times during the interview saying things such as “it’s f****** bulls***” and “the things I’ve seen the last 7 days make me question everything I ever believed in.” He also said that his team is being unfairly targeted by NASCAR and that is what has him fuming!  I expect penalties to be handed down later this week for the infractions and probably more punishments for Brad’s comments regarding NASCAR officials.

In a race that lasted 3 hours and 28 seconds, there were 7 cautions, 7 different leaders and 18 lead changes. The biggest mover of the night was defending Spring winner, Greg Biffle who started 35th and battled his way up to 4th. Danica Patrick finished 3 laps down back in 28th and now leads the ROTY standings by 3pts over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Brian Vickers did well substituting for Denny Hamlin finishing in the 8th position. Jimmie Johnson continues to lead the standings by 9pts over Keselowski after a hard fought 6th place finish. Kyle Busch moved up to 3rd with his second win of 2013 and is just 18pts back of the leader. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now heads to the recently repaved Kansas Speedway which saw speeds top 210mph in a recent test.