Kyle Busch Gets A Big Birthday Present
Sunday, May 3, 2009Posted by
"What do you get a guy who has everything or buys anything he wants?"Kyle Busch wondered Saturday night.
How about a visit to victory lane on your birthday?
Saturday night Kyle Busch became the second driver in Sprint Cup history to win a race on the exact day of his birthday, as he turned 24 the day of the Sprint Cup race at Richmond.
"It was a good birthday, for sure," Busch said. "This is the best present. It's cool."
The last and only driver to accomplish this feat was Cale Yarborough, who did it twice as he got wins on March 27th at North Wilkesboro in 1977 and at 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.
Kyle Busch now has 50 wins in NASCAR including the Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series, and the Camping World Truck Series.
Busch actually came in to the weekend on a losing streak, as he has not won since the fifth race of the year at Bristol, March 22. He celebrated his birthday weekend in style, winning a charity race Thursday, hosted by teammate Denny Hamlin, then winning the Nationwide race Friday night, and of course the win in the Sprint Cup Series Saturday.
"It's an awesome win for us," said Busch, who celebrated with his trademark sarcastic bow to the booing crowd, then 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. They're having a good time. We struggled for four weeks. It's been a struggle for us - we haven't finished where we want to. We made it happen here."
Busch pulled off the weekend sweep by using a late restart to pass Carl Edwards, then on the next lap passed leader Jeff Gordon and held on for his third win of the year.
Tony Stewart came in second, followed by Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman, and Mark Martin. Both Burton and Martin were involved in accidents during the night, Burton was spun by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin was caught up in a wreck with Martin Truex Jr.
Tony Stewart was yet again so close to getting his first win with his own team, as he finished with his second, second place finish in the last three races. Stewart may have caught Busch, as he had fresher tires, but Busch credited a late caution to help holding off his former Gibbs Racing teammate.
"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. I didn't think we could do it. I knew we had a good car, not a great car.”
"All you have to do is hang around with a good car and let the race fall your way."
Stewart said one of the things that makes Busch great is his confidence.
"I've watched Kyle this week, raced with him Thursday night, got to watch him run last night and tonight," Stewart said. "When you get in a string like he's on, you got so much confidence and momentum on your side. That means so much in this series."
Sam Hornish Jr. got a new career high with a sixth place finish, to continue a three race hot streak, he got his first top 10 at Phoenix two weeks ago, the was running in the top 10 last week at Talladega before his was caught up in the second big wreck.
Jamie McMurray also came back from a spin to finish seventh, followed Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Jeff Gordon got his points lead back from Kurt Busch thanks to his top 10, as he now leads the older Busch brother by 10 points.
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