Kyle Busch makes up lap, comes from back of pack to win Talladega

Kyle Busch won his second Sprint Cup Series race of the season on Sunday in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. Driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, Busch rallied after falling a lap down early in the event and led the field to the checkered flag, which fell under a caution flag after a last lap melee.
 
Following a caution flag for debris, Michael Waltrip led Jimmie Johnson and Busch with five laps to go. Busch took the high lane in his No. 18 Toyota, locked up with former teammate Jeff Gordon and jumped into the lead as the field came back to the start-finish line.
 
As Busch led the way for the final few circuits around the 2.66-mile superspeedway things got dicey in the draft. Juan Pablo Montoya moved his Dodge into contention and hung Gordon out to dry. In the back of the pack Michael McDowell spun but did not bring out a caution. Seconds later Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jamie McMurray's machines made slight contact in turn one and a wreck ensued, tangling a dozen cars and forcing the field to freeze, ending the event under yellow flag conditions.
 
"On that restart we shifted the 55 (Waltrip) out and I think Gordon got in behind me somehow and Jeff was pushing me and we bump-drafted Jimmie (Johnson) out of the way off of four,” Busch explained of his charge. “I got out underneath him and Jeff pushed me past the 48. We got the 24 shut out of line by the 42 (Juan Montoya) again and it was the 18 and 42 there at the end.”
 
In the past, Talladega had been a challenge for the younger Busch. He entered this weekend's event with six previous starts with four of them ending as DNFs.
 
Less than 65 laps into the event it seemed that his bad luck may continue. As he attempted to make a green flag pit stop he missed his stall. He had to pull back on track, make another lap and try again. In doing so, he lost a lap to the race leaders. But Busch regained his lap with the help of the free pass on lap 118 after Carl Edwards suffered a blown tire, bringing out the second caution flag of the day.
 
“Getting a lap down, that was like typical Talladega there, and I didn't wreck today, so I am ultimately happy about that,” he added. “I greatly appreciative that I was able to win today because it's just been a struggle here at this place for certainly a couple years and I don't think I've ever finished one here yet without having some sort of damage.Today we still had damage but it wasn't enough to keep us from victory lane.”
 
Montoya made his stock car debut at Talladega in the ARCA RE/MAX Series in 2006. He ended that race in the third spot, proving that he was a quick study in the draft. After getting shuffled back in the closing laps, he took advantage of lessons learned and regained the lost ground and hooked up with Busch, finishing second.
 
“I fell back to 20th place with about 15 laps to go and made a couple of moves that took me all the way to the front,” Montoya explained. “I really helped Kyle. When you could get into someone’s bumper, you could push him all the way around the lap and make up a bunch a ground. It was good and I got up to second and then dropped to fifth and got up to second again. It was pretty cool and interesting race.”
 
Busch's JGR teammate Denny Hamlin finished third while David Ragan and Brian Vickers closed out the top 5.
 
Travis Kvapil, Casey Mears, Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished sixth through 10th.
 
As expected, Earnhardt challenged throughout the day, leading on 12 occasions for 46 laps. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Gordon, equally as successful at Talladega in the past, finished 19th after losing his slot in the draft in the closing laps. He led only one time on Sunday.
 
Tony Stewart had the dominant car, leading a race high 61 laps. After his win on Saturday in the Nationwide event it appeared that he may finally overcome his storied losing battle with the Alabama track in Cup Series events. With just over 40 laps remaining, on lap 145, he blew a tire. On lap 175, he was involved in a wreck while running three-wide with Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte.

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