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Busch Notches Yet Another Second-Place Finish at DaytonaWith Hamlin’s Win, Farm Bureau Insurance Team Gives JGR 1-2 Finish
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Date: July 4, 2008
Event: Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola (Round 19 of 35)
Series: NASCAR Nationwide Series
Location: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (2.5-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 20th/2nd (Running, completed 105 of 105 laps in a green-white-checkered finish)
Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Farm Bureau Insurance Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), found himself in a familiar spot during the closing laps of Friday night’s Winn-Dixie 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Much like February’s Nationwide Series season-opener at the very same track, Busch pushed his JGR teammate to the win and was forced to settle for a second-place finish behind the No. 20 Toyota. While JGR teammate Tony Stewart was the beneficiary of Busch’s generosity in February, this time it was Denny Hamlin finishing ahead of Busch during Friday night’s green-white-checkered shootout.
“We wanted to win here badly,” said Busch, who notched his ninth top-five finish of the season in the Nationwide Series. “Congratulations to the 20 team. That’s three straight for them. That car is awfully strong and hard to beat every week anyway, but that restrictor-plate car is strong, too. Just a tremendous opportunity there for us to capitalize on a good night and thankfully that was the first finish for Farm Bureau Insurance in this series for JGR. I’m glad we were able to give them that tonight.”
The talented 23-year old qualified 20th but quickly moved into the top-10 by just the third lap, and then the top-five by lap 20. From the halfway point of the 105-lap race on, Busch never dropped out of the top-five and bided his time until the final laps to take a shot at the win.
After close racing with such frontrunners as Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer, Busch again found himself behind his teammate with two laps to go in the originally scheduled 100-lap distance. But just as he was beginning to set up a last lap pass on Hamlin, the yellow flag waved on lap 98 for an accident on the backstretch involving Colin Braun, which extended the race length by five laps and created a two-lap shootout for the win.
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“We got a green-white checker restart and the ‘5’ (Earnhardt) really, really hung back on us and we kind of hung back on the 20 (Hamlin), but when we got a little run down the back straightaway, I just pulled in line and did what a teammate would do,” said Busch, who led twice for a total of 12 laps. “The green-white checker probably made more of an exciting race back in the pack than what we were going to have up front. We were just three cars. It was me, Denny and Junior.”
The runner-up finish helped Busch, who’s now running a part-time Nationwide Series schedule, maintain seventh in the driver standings. It moved the No. 18 car, which is also running a partial schedule this season, up one spot to 30th in the owner standings. The top-30 in Nationwide Series owner points are automatically locked into each event, so Busch will not have to qualify on time for next weekend’s event at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., where he will again pilot the No. 18 Toyota.
There were three caution periods for 10 laps, with seven drivers failing to finish the event.
Hamlin’s win in the Winn-Dixie 250 was his eighth career Nationwide Series victory and his third of the season. It also marked the ninth win for the No. 20 team and its third straight restrictor-plate win, as Stewart drove the No. 20 to victory in February at Daytona and in April at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Finishing in third behind Busch was Earnhardt, while Bowyer and Brad Keselowski secured the rest of the top-five. Kasey Kahne, Scott Wimmer, David Stremme, David Ragan and Mike Bliss comprised the remainder of the top-10.
The next event on the Nationwide Series schedule is the July 11 Dollar General 300 at Chicagoland Speedway. The race starts at 8 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with its pre-race show at 7:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.