Kyle Busch won the 2011 Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway this weekend to earn his third victory of the season; a race that was the inaugural Sprint Car race for the speedway.
The win allowed the 26-year-old driver to jump into the points lead at the season’s halfway mark, four points in front of Carl Edwards. Currently sitting in third is Kevin Harvick who started the race first in the standings. After finishing Saturday’s race in the 16th spot, Harvick slipped to third behind Busch and Edwards.
After winning the Trucks race on Thursday after starting in the back of the field, Busch started in pole position on Saturday due to a rainout and coasted to the win. The victory puts him just one win away from becoming just the third driver in NASCAR history to collect 100 victories in the top three series.
In all Busch has 48 Nationwide Series wins, 22 Cup wins and 29 in Trucks to his credit. In this latest win, Busch rolled to the finish line at the 1.5 mile Kentucky track after pulling away from Jimmie Johnson after a restart with just three laps to go. Busch finished the day driving in front of the filed in 125 out of the 267 laps.
A massive traffic jam that kept fans sitting bumper-to-bumper on Interstate 71 while the race had started was also a part of the post-race talk. While speedway officials acknowledged the traffic was worse than expected and said they would fix the issue before next year’s event, that didn’t help the people who missed the event, sitting stranded in the gridlock.
Kentucky is the first venue added since 2001 when tracks in Kansas and Chicago were added and it’s evident some kinks need to be worked out. In the meantime, Kyle Busch goes into the record books as the winner of the first Cup series race at Kentucky.
Used with permission of the author.
Jay Donetelli is a Tampa-based freelance sportswriter and contributor to Sports Climax. With an opinion sharper than an Ovechkin skate blade with the sting of an Ali jab, Donetelli has a loyal cult of readers who have found a way to love him.
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