Kyle Busch Happy with his win at Auto Club Speedway March 24, 2013
Photo – Getty Images
The most exciting, incredible, and stunning last lap ever to occur at the Auto Club Speedway took place Sunday afternoon.
A mass of story lines came out from the last lap, after rivals wrecked each other, the third place driver coming into the last lap took the win and Smoke threw a punch on pit road. Fontana is not known for “exciting” races but, Sunday’s race was the most thrilling race to ever take place at the Auto Club Speedway.
The race leading up to the final lap had a little extra something that Fontana races never seem to have and that was likely a result of the Gen 6 car. NASCAR showed-off what the Gen 6 car was all about during this race mainly due to the incredible restarts and racing that was on display throughout the event. Leading up to the final lap, this race could be considered one of the best at Fontana in the track’s history but, the last lap made this race ‘the best’ from Auto Club Speedway.
Kyle Busch took the lead right off of the bat when he passed his teammate Matt Kenseth on lap 11. Busch led until Joey Logano was able to pass him on lap 45 and Busch was able to regain the lead after the first round of green-flag pit stops occurred on lap 65. He continued to lead throughout the mid-part of the race and led up until the action started to pick up with just under 70 laps remaining.
A strategic pit stop put Tony Stewart in the lead, after a caution with 70 laps to go. Stewart, along with a few other drivers, took two tires and they were up front on the ensuing restart. Smoke stayed up front until there were 53 laps to go when eventual race winner Kyle Busch regained the lead and was able to stay up front through the final round of pit stops but, when some drivers came down pit road under a late caution and Busch stayed out, he had older tires than some of the other drivers who would soon be challenging him for the lead.
Yellow flag number eight came out with 15 laps to go, for Clint Bowyer who blew an engine and spun out in turn three. That ended up being the final caution of the day and Kyle Busch led on the next restart. A move that didn’t seem too problematic when it happened, occurred on the final restart when Joey Logano put a big block on Tony Stewart heading down into turn one. Once the race concluded, that incident came up on pit road and a few punches were thrown.
On the restart, Kyle Busch started to pull away and it looked as though he wouldn’t be caught. But just a few laps after that, Logano caught up to him and started to challenge him for the lead. While these former teammates started to battle for the lead, Hamlin caught up to them with six laps to go. Hamlin and Logano didn’t get along too well following last weekend’s race at Bristol and their rivalry caused both drivers to miss out on a victory today.
Busch started to fade in the closing laps but, as soon as Hamlin and Logano went door-to-door for the lead, Busch closed the gap, positioning himself for the finish. Hamlin and Logano were side-by-side when they took the white flag and a little contact was made as they sailed off into turn one. They continued to stay side-by-side down the backstretch and by the time they reached turn three, neither driver was going to let the other one win. Logano slid up into Hamlin in turn three and that caused both of the drivers to slide up into the wall. Seconds before Hamlin and Logano slid up into the wall, Kyle Busch motored by on the outside with his sight set on the checkered flag.
Hamlin and Logano both wrecked in turn four, taking each other out with Hamlin taking a viscous hit to the concrete wall that had no SAFER barrier and just before the pit entrance. Hamlin’s car hit the wall nose first and the car’s front tires went airborne and touched back on the ground seconds later. Logano was able to escape with just slapping into the turn four wall and he finished third. Hamlin’s car was destroyed after his hard impact and once he got out of the car under his own power, Hamlin slowly collapsed on the ground.
Hamlin was obviously hurt in the wreck and was carried to the ambulance on a stretcher. He was awake and alert in the infield care center and was transported to a local hospital for further observations. More information on Hamlin’s condition will likely be reported later tonight or tomorrow morning.
While the wreck occurred in turn three and four, Kyle Busch was able to cross the finish line first and take home his first Sprint Cup Series win since last April at Richmond. Besides being a huge win for Busch and the first win at Auto Club Speedway for Joe Gibbs Racing, this was also Toyota’s first ever win at the track. Obviously, this win meant a lot for Busch and his team. This victory also meant that Busch swept the weekend races at Fontana, a phrase Busch enjoys hearing with repeated sweeps. The success that Busch has experienced so far this season is quite remarkable as this event represents only five races into the season. This season, it seems Busch is by far more focused than ever on winning.
Confrontation follows the dramatic final laps when Tony Stewart wanted to settle some unfinished business with Joey Logano. Logano had blocked Stewart on the final restart and that basically took Stewart’s chances of winning away. Stewart parked his car next to Logano’s following the race and Smoke approached Logano in a feisty fashion. The drivers exchanged some words before Stewart aimed a punch at Logano and he swung back, but neither driver made contact. Post-race interviews by both of the drivers revealed that they weren’t at all happy with each other. Stewart commented on the situation by saying “I’m going to bust his (Logano’s) ***.” Clearly, Stewart isn’t done with Logano.
Logano’s post race interview was more about the final lap and Logano said that “Denny was not going to win that race” and Logano made sure that happened by making contact with Hamlin in turn three. Logano has found himself involved in post-race confrontations following both of the last two races and a different and angrier side of Logano has appeared this year. The two feuds involving Logano have made story lines the last two weeks and the end of both situations could linger for a while. The drivers did not leave their emotions at Bristol after last weekend’s race since the action and feuds carried over to today’s race. And Kyle Busch took his first win of the season while Tony Stewart took a swing at Joey Logano.
This race was by far the most action-packed event of the season-to-date and the usual calm Fontana came alive during the Auto Club 400.
An off-week is exactly what race fans don’t want to see after the last two races but, this off-week will be quite interesting after the past two events bring out strong emotions from drivers. Drivers will surely use this off-week to recuperate and get ready for the second short track race of the season in two weeks at Martinsville.
