DARLINGTON, S.C. — With the likeness of action hero Indiana Jones adorning his hood, Kyle Busch set out upon a wall-smacking, lug-nut missing, brake-failing 500 miles Saturday night at the fabled Darlington Raceway.
And Busch’s latest adventure ended with his third Sprint Cup victory of the season and his first in the Dodge Challenger 500.
For Busch, who has become NASCAR’s resident villain more than a Jonesian action hero thanks to a recent scrape with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., the victory was unique. Though he had the dominant car for most of the night, he did not have a dominant race.
“To win here at a place that’s so hard, whether it’s the old asphalt, the new asphalt, the regular car, the new car,” Busch said, “it’s just unbelievable the way this race goes about — the way things happened tonight.”
The newly resurfaced 1.33-mile speedway gave up faster speeds, including a track record for pole-sitter Greg Biffle, but that did not mean the “track too tough to tame” would be any less a test for drivers.
Biffle led for 95 laps before engine problems forced him from the race at lap 234 and to a last-place finish.
“It is really frustrating,” Biffle said. “I’ve just become accustomed to expecting it because it’s just week after week, it’s something — something breaks, something falls off…I know everybody is trying their hardest…It’s just really frustrating.”
With Biffle out, Busch was left with the best car, but not without problems of his own. Busch led 169 laps, but also spent a good portion of the race climbing back to the front after being penalized for a missing lug nut after a pit stop on lap 140.
Busch restarted 29th, but had rejoined the leaders — a contingent that included nine-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt and Carl Edwards — by lap 250.
At lap 270, Busch passed Gordon to retake the lead. After several exchanges of the point among Busch, Gordon and Earnhardt, Busch took over for good on lap 304, leading the remaining 60 laps without being seriously challenged — except by Darlington’s turn-four wall, which Busch hit no fewer than five times, once while leading in the waning laps of the race.
“A year, or two years ago, I probably would have just thrown my hands up and wrecked the thing (after the penalty), but I’m getting smarter — not much, but just that much smarter,” said Busch, holding up his finger and thumb an inch or so apart. “I know that we’ve still got a long race. If it would have happened with 30 laps to go, I would have been junk. I would have probably folded it in half. Fortunately, it was still a long enough way to go.
“Knowing there was time to rebound from it, I just kind of laid back, stayed cool, tried to maneuver my way through traffic and do the best I could.”
Edwards, who rebounded from early-week struggles, found enough speed to drive the No. 99 Ford Fusion to a second-place finish. Edwards and Busch share the Sprint Cup lead in victories this season with three apiece.
“Kyle had the fastest car — I mean, he was pretty much unbeatable tonight,” Edwards said. “To finish second, beat the rest of the field, that’s pretty good from where we came from. I’m very proud of my guys for rebounding on pit road.”
Busch also extended his points lead to 79 over second-place Jeff Burton, who finished 10th. Earnhardt, who finished fourth, is third in points, 134 behind Busch.
The third-place finish moved Gordon into the top 12 in point standings, up three spots to 10th.
Gordon, who struggled through a long stretch and already has three uncharacteristic DNFs this season, said his third-place finish shows marked improvement by his No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet team, but there is still more room to grow.
“We’ve been doing everything we can, testing, trying to figure it out with all the tools that we have at Hendrick Motorsports,” Gordon said. “We’re still missing a little something and that we’re going to keep working on.”
Behind Gordon and Earnhardt, David Ragan drove his Ford Fusion to a season-best fifth-place finish, ahead of teammate Matt Kenseth, and gave Roush-Fenway three of the top-six spots. Denny Hamlin, Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney and Burton rounded out the top 10.
But Darlington belonged to Busch, who became the track’s youngest victor and now has eight victories this season in NASCAR’s top three series. He has also won at least one race on some level for six-straight weeks.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m not impressed with what I’ve done — and I’m very grateful and humble that I’ve been able to win six weeks in a row,” he said. “Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, you know, I can go to Charlotte next week, I can either win a truck race or the All-Star Race or both.
“That would be awesome.”