Kyle Busch Wins The 2012 Budweiser Shootout From Daytona
Written By: Ashley McCubbin
Coming into the running of this year's Bud Shootout, there were a lot of unknowns with what was going o happen. By the end of the event, there was one thing that was clear - Speedweeks 2012 is going to be wild.
With that said, it's only fitting that 'Wild Thing' Kyle Busch would be victorious after having a wild night of his own.
"I don't know how many times I spun but didn't actually spin," Busch said in victory lane. "So glad we are back in packs. It was a lot fun. Hope the fans enjoyed it."
With 28 laps to go, it looked as if Busch's night would be over as he came across the nose of Jimmie Johnson's car with the car turning sideways heading towards the infield. Though Busch, known as the wheel-man he is, he turned the car back in the right direction and kept going.
Busch worked his way back up to the top five and was headed towards the front, when he found himself in trouble again. Jeff Gordon was trying to nudge Busch up to get under him coming out of turn four, when he pushed a little hard, causing Busch to spin down to the inside. Gordon moved to the outside, though Kurt Busch was already there.
The contact caused Gordon to get into the outside wall and then over on to his roof after contact from Jimmie Johnson. Gordon's car then flipped over multiple times, before landing on its roof. Other drivers collected in the incident were A.J. Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray and Carl Edwards. McMurray had the led the race at the lap 25 break.
“It was just getting down to the end of the race and it was time to go,” Gordon said. “Me and Jimmie were looking good there. We knew those guys were coming, and once Kyle got in front of me, I was just trying to keep Jimmie on me and trying to stay with Kyle.”
“Every time I got to Kyle’s bumper, he just started getting so sideways, like he was a lot tonight and I thought he was going to wreck. I saw him start to spin, so I went wide, not knowing someone had gotten to my outside. That got me into those guys and into the wall and along for a ride. And then Kyle wins the race, so it was a pretty wild and crazy way to get it all started. It was certainly an exciting finish, but not the way our Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet wants to get the 2012 season started.”
The race restarted with two laps to go on a green-white-checkered, which saw Busch make his way through the field, pushing Tony Stewart. Busch pushed Stewart all the way to the front, past Marcos Ambrose in turn one. Then coming down to the checkered, Busch swung to the outside of Stewart and passed him.
“It was going to be either me or him," Busch said. "I’ve seen the move done before. It was my turn this time.”
The margin of victory was 0.13 seconds.
"I got part of it," Stewart said. "I just didn't get all of what I needed to get done. Great to be here after how far we were off yesterday."
Behind Stewart, Ambrose would finish third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin. Hamlin worked his way back to fifth after getting two lucky dog awards back-to-back. Hamlin got caught two laps down after temperature issues following a wreck.
On lap nine, David Ragan turned Paul Menard into the wall, collecting Michael Waltrip, Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton.
"Everybody was real racy and I just got into the back of Menard," Ragan said. "You get a good run, and you're pushing a little bit, and I guess he was pushing whoever was in front of him. And when you've got the meat in between the sandwich, you usually get wrecked."
There'd be other big wrecks on the night as with 46 to go, pole sitter Martin Truex Jr. would send teammate Bowyer for a wild ride through the infield grass. Then with 20 to go, Ambrose would get into Joey Logano, who would get into Truex. Other drivers involved in the wreck included Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kenseth.
Most of the wrecks on the night were caused due to drivers getting into each other's left rear quarter panel.
"It just depends on where you get hit and how you get it," Logano said. "I got hit on the right side and then the other side and it just sent me around."
"Gonna take a lot more patience from a lot of these guys," Harvick said after he climbed from his burning car. "They are hitting each other in the left rear and getting big runs. There are two pedals in the car; you need to stay off the left rears."
1. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 82, $198550.
2. (15) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 82, $94800.
3. (21) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 82, $54800.
4. (3) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 82, $45800.
5. (16) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 82, $44800.
6. (7) Greg Biffle, Ford, 82, $43400.
7. (13) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 82, $42050.
8. (17) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 82, $40025.
9. (11) Carl Edwards, Ford, 82, $38025.
10. (25) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 82, $36525.
11. (12) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 81, $36025.
12. (9) AJ Allmendinger, Dodge, 80, $35525.
13. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 79, $35025.
14. (18) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Accident, 74, $33525.
15. (14) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, Accident, 73, $33025.
16. (4) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, Accident, 73, $32525.
17. (6) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 73, $30025.
18. (10) Joey Logano, Toyota, Accident, 54, $28025.
19. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, Accident, 54, $25025.
20. (8) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 54, $23025.
21. (23) Matt Kenseth, Ford, Accident, 54, $21025.
22. (22) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, Accident, 54, $20025.
23. (24) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, Accident, 8, $18030.
24. (5) David Ragan, Ford, Accident, 8, $16030.
25. (20) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, Accident, 8, $15032.
