Thanks to the unintentional generosity of the dominant driver in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, opportunistic Brad Keselowski won the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season.
Kevin Harvick led 292 of the 325 laps at the 1.54-mile track, but a pit road speeding penalty under caution on lap 311 sent him to the back of the field for the final restart.
That gave Keselowski the chance he needed, and on lap 319 he surged past Kyle Larson for the top spot and pulled away to win by 0.564 seconds. Continue reading →
It took Kyle Busch 13 years to get his first NASCAR XFINITY Series victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
It took him one more year to get the second.
The pole winner at Atlanta for the sixth time, Busch pulled away after a restart on lap 148 of 163 and beat Brad Keselowski to the finish line by 0.605 seconds to score his second straight victory at the 1.54-mile track in Saturday’s Rinnai 250. Continue reading →
Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford, speaks with the media prior to practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 3, 2017 in Hampton, Georgia. Photo – Jared C Tilton/Getty Images
The club comprised of drivers who have won both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 currently has two members – Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt.
Kurt Busch, who won the Daytona 500 last Sunday, may have his sights set on joining that exclusive clique.
Three of the of the congratulatory texts Busch received after the Daytona win came from the Andretti clan – Mario, Michael and Marco. It was Michael, you’ll recall, who fielded the Andretti Autosport entry Busch drove to a sixth-place finish in the 2014 Indianapolis 500 in his only IndyCar start. Continue reading →
His car damaged in a wreck on the backstretch and held together with tape, Kurt Busch grabbed the lead on the final lap of the 59th Daytona 500 on Sunday and took the checkered flag in the Great American Race as a capstone to a checkered career that has trended upward since Busch joined Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.
In a race that featured the first test of a new three-stage race format in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series—and featured enough twisted sheet metal to keep fabricators busy for a month—Busch surged to the front with a run around the outside when more than half the vehicles in an 11-car lead draft sputtered and ran short on fuel.
Having pushed other drivers to victory in the 500 on three previous occasions, Busch took the prize himself this time, finishing 0.228 seconds ahead of Ryan Blaney, who came from the rear of the lead pack on the final two laps. Continue reading →
