(Photo: Stephen Conley | The Podium Finish)
MADISON, Ill. — On a restart with 13 laps to go, Kyle Busch slid ahead of Joey Logano for the lead in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway. Busch restarted from the outside lane after Logano, the control car, elected the inside lane.
As the laps ticked down, Logano remained on Busch’s back bumper. Logano tried to dive-bomb Busch entering the corners, but he could never get close enough. Unless he bobbled, it seemed Busch was on his way to his second Cup win of the season.
Suddenly, with four laps to go, Kevin Harvick crashed in Turn 3 to bring out a caution. Busch would have to battle Logano for victory in NASCAR overtime. It was the second straight time a Cup points race ended with a green-white-checkered finish.
On the restart, Busch elected the outside lane and Logano crossed him over in Turn 1. A corner later, Busch tried the same move but it didn’t stick. Logano pulled away on the final lap and won by .655 seconds.
“Got into turn one by myself and was too far back,” Busch said. “When you are the guy on the inside, you just flush the guy on the outside and it’s over. I got a crossover though but threw it into (turn) three too far. It chattered all four tires. Just didn’t have any grip to get off the corner well enough to be on his outside.”
Kurt Busch lined up behind his brother on the green-white-checkered, but a miscommunication between the two, Kurt said, ended Toyota’s chance for a victory.
“I thought there was going to be a hand signal on when it was going to be go time and I was going to push the hell out of the 18,” Kurt said. “We did the whole brother miscommunication. We should have won that. There should have been a Toyota in victory lane, a Busch in victory lane. Logano, he didn’t do anything smart – we just messed up on getting the launch.”
Kyle recorded his third consecutive top-five finish and moved into second in driver’s points after earning 46 points on Sunday. He started 12th and place eighth and third in Stages 1 and 2, respectively. He also led a race-high 66 laps.
The Cup Series returns next weekend at Sonoma Raceway.
