Busch excels on birthday
RICHMOND, Va. — Kyle Busch planned to open the bulk of his birthday presents when he returned home from Richmond International Raceway.
“What do you get a guy who has everything or buys anything he wants?” he wondered.
How about a trip to Victory Lane?
Busch became just the second driver in NASCAR history to win a Cup race on his birthday, celebrating his 24th on Saturday night in the Crown Royal 400.
“It was a good birthday, for sure,” Busch said. “This is the best present. It’s cool.”
Cale Yarborough is the only other driver to accomplish the feat — twice — celebrating his March 27 birthday with wins at North Wilkesoboro in 1977 and Atlanta in 1983.
“How old was he?” Busch asked, a hint of cockiness in his voice. He then smiled with a slight sense of satisfaction when he learned Yarborough was 38 when he won his first race on his birthday.
The young driver has 50 wins spanning NASCAR’s top three series.
But he had rolled into Richmond on an uncharacteristically long losing streak — his last win was Week 5 at Bristol. He broke the slump in style, though, with three wins on the weekend starting with a victory in teammate Denny Hamlin’s charity race Thursday at Southside Speedway. He then won Friday’s Nationwide Series race at RIR.
“It’s an awesome win for us,” said Busch, who celebrated with his trademark sarcastic bow to the booing crowd and later swan-dived into the arms of his Joe Gibbs Racing crew.
“It’s really exciting to win on my birthday and to have my team guys enjoy it as much as I do. We struggled for four weeks. … We made it happen here.”
For the Cup win, Busch used a quick jump on a late restart to again pass Carl Edwards and then set his sights on leader Jeff Gordon. Busch raced past Gordon on the next lap and then held on for the Richmond sweep.
Tony Stewart was second, followed by Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman and Mark Martin. Burton and Martin recovered from earlier accidents — Burton spun after contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Martin was involved in an accident with Martin Truex Jr. — for their strong finishes.
Newman’s finish moved him up another three spots in the standings to 10th — he’s gained 23 positions over the last seven races — and put both Stewart-Haas Racing entries in contention for Chase for the championship berths. Stewart is third in the standings.
Stewart still is angling for his first win as owner of his team but settled for his second runner-up finish in the last three races. Busch credited one final caution-free run for being able to hold off Stewart, who had fresher tires.
“Those guys had to run us down,” Busch said. “We took four tires, and then we were going to stay out from then on out. We made the most of the effort.”
Sam Hornish Jr. was a career-best sixth to continue a three-race upswing. He notched the first top-10 of his career at Phoenix, and he was running inside the top 10 at Talladega last week until he was part of the 10-car accident with 11 laps to go.
