(WOMR file photo)
How many times have we heard this story?? Kyle Busch thoroughly dominates the field, but fails to bring home the trophy! The count now is nine times!
Matt Kenseth passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch for the lead with 13 laps to go and from there, went on to win Saturday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Busch had dominated the race up to the pass by Kenseth but over the final laps, his #18 Toyota began losing speed. Busch finished a in the sixth position after leading 265 of the 367 laps in the race.
After the race, Busch’s crew chief, Dave Rogers, said that Busch’s car was suffering from a deflating tire over the final laps.
The victory was the third of the season for Kenseth. It was his first ever at Darlington Raceway.
“Honestly, I’ve only dreamed about winning the Southern 500,” Kenseth, who notched the 27th victory of his career, said. “This to me probably feels bigger than any win in my career. I really feel bad that Jason isn’t here. This is obviously his team and his effort, but Wally did a great job filling in.
“We had a fifth- or sixth-place car, fighting loose, (and) those last two adjustments (on pit road) were just awesome.”
Trouble, once again, bubbled up between Busch and Kasey Kahne. Kahne briefly took the lead from Busch after a restart on Lap 333, but a lap later, Busch moved up the track toward Kahne’s left rear fender. It did not appear that the two cars touched, but Kahne car wiggled and the slapped the wall.
After the race, he blamed Busch for the wreck.
“I think he just made another mistake,” Kahne said of Busch. “That is his third one when he has been around me this year. I don’t really understand it.”
A week ago at Talladega, Busch bumped Kahne from behind and results was a huge wreck.
Busch left the track without talking to reporters. Hamlin, however, talked about Busch.
“Yeah, he definitely won’t be happy, that’s for sure,” Hamlin said of his teammate. “But it’s tough when you have a car that was as dominant as his, then the last run whatever happens happens. But it’s part of the game of racing. I mean, I know that I don’t run as hard for the first 400 miles as I did the last 100. It’s once you get track position, you never know what your car can do.
It appears that ol KyBu is having a really difficult time closing the deal on the Sprint Cup side, unlike what he has done in the Nationwide Series so far this season.
Check out the unofficial results of the Bojangles Southern 500.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
