NASCAR setup camp this past week at Infineon Raceway here in the North Bay, and today it all came to an end with a very exciting Toyota Savemart 350 race as part of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. Kurt Busch avoided all the craziness happening behind him to secure his first win of the season and the 23rd of his NASCAR Sprint Cup career in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. Jeff Gordon and his team turned pit strategy into second-place on the podium, and the current NASCAR Sprint Cup series points leader Carl Edwards did the same to secure third place. Clint Bowyer came fourth, Marcos Ambrose in fifth and polesitter Joey Logano rounded out the top six. Kurt Busch, who led 76 of the race’s 110 laps and earned the first road-course win of his career on the 10-turn, 1.99-mile Infineon track was over the moon with the event. “The car drove itself. To get a road course win, it’s a big check mark on my list,” said Busch. Busch first took the lead on Lap 13 and then seldom looked back, his car quickly jumping out to sizable leads in several restarts that followed caution periods.
However for the cars behind the No. 22 Dodge driven by Busch the racing was a lot more ragged. This was true for both Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers, who wrote another chapter under NASCAR’s “Boys, have at it” doctrine. It began on Lap 37 when Tony nudged Brian from behind as they entered the final corner onto the start finish straight, sending Brian’s Toyota spinning and triggering a multi-car wreck that also forced Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the race a few laps later. After getting repairs to his car, Brian slammed into the back of Tony’s Chevrolet entering the same turn 50 laps later, causing Tony to spin and crash backward into the tire stacks guarding the outside wall. “I probably had it coming because I dumped [Brian] earlier, but I dumped him because he was blocking,” said Tony Stewart, a two-time Cup champion who had been running in second behind Busch before his coming together with Busch. “I like Brian, I’m not holding it against him at all, if they want to block, that’s what is going to happen to them every time.” Tony said. Asked to give his side, Brian Vickers said bluntly that Tony “wrecked me and I wrecked him, I’m sure Tony and I will talk this week we’ll figure it out, it’s just racing.” Vickers finished 36th in the 43-car field and Stewart was 39th.
Edwards leads the Cup standings by 25 points over Kevin Harvick, who finished ninth today, and by 33 points over reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, who finished seventh.
Final Results for the event are as follows.
1. Kurt Busch
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Carl Edwards
4. Clint Bowyer
5. Marcos Ambrose
6. Joey Logano
7. Jimmie Johnson
8. Martin Truex Jr.
9. Kevin Harvick
10. Brad Keselowski
11. Kyle Busch
12. David Gilliland
13. A.J. Allmendinger
14. Matt Kenseth
15. Jamie McMurray
16. Regan Smith
17. Paul Menard
18. Robby Gordon
19. Mark Martin
20. Kasey Kahne
21. Jeff Burton
22. Juan Pablo Montoya
23. Greg Biffle
24. David Reutimann
25. Ryan Newman
26. Andy Pilgrim
27. Chris Cook
28. Boris Said
29. David Ragan
30. Michael McDowell
31. Dave Blaney
32. Terry Labonte
33. Brian Simo
34. Casey Mears
35. Andy Lally
36. Brian Vickers
37. Denny Hamlin
38. Bobby Labonte
39. Tony Stewart
40. Joe Nemechek
41. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
42. Mike Skinner
43. PJ Jones
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