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Food City 500 - Bristol Motor Speedway
Kyle Busch Captures Milestone Win at Thunder Valley
Kyle Busch shook the monkey off his back Sunday and won NASCAR's first-ever Car of Tomorrow event in dramatic style.
Busch held off a hard-charging but gentlemanly Jeff Burton, who passed four-time champion Jeff Gordon for second place on the next-to-last lap following a green-white-checkered restart.
Burton's teammate Kevin Harvick was fourth behind Gordon and Greg Biffle in fifth.
The win for the younger Busch was his fourth on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series circuit and the 200th win for his car owner, Hendrick Motorsports. It was also Chevrolet's 600th NASCAR win.
Busch's luck this season has been unbelievably bad as several potential wins evaporated in the latter stages of races with either ill-timed miscues or mechanical failures.
Denny Hamlin, who led much of the second half of the race, had engine problems just a few laps from the finish that knocked him from contention.
Hamlin's teammate, Tony Stewart, who dominated the first half of the race, had some sort of engine problem that ended his run for the victory.
Busch's win puts him in the record books for winning the first NASCAR "Car of Tomorrow" race. The new, safer car with an adjustable wing and a different style front air dam splitter, was just as competitive on the high banks of Bristol as its predecessors and the race finish was another hair-raising Bristol shootout.
Jeff Gordon's car was fast in qualifying but the four-time champion slowed down after starting from the pole position. He encountered handling problems early on, falling out of the top 10 as Stewart charged to the front. Stewart led most of the laps before Elliott Sadler passed him with 305 laps to go.
It was pretty much a typical Bristol race with caution flags playing a major role.
Most of the cautions were prompted by the close-quarter racing that has made Bristol one of the most popular tracks on the NASCAR circuit for fans.
Rookie Regan Smith, subbing in the Ginn Racing Chevrolet for veteran Mark Martin, had a rough start at one of the toughest tracks on the schedule. This was Smith's first race in the car Martin had been driving. Martin took his first weekend off since he decided to run an abbreviated schedule for the first time in his career. Smith spun twice in the first half of the race but continued racing.
Gordon Wins First Car of Tomorrw Pole at Bristol
Jeff Gordon won the Bud Pole for the Food City 500, posting a lap of 15.295 second at 125.453 mph - scoring the first Bud Pole in the Car of Tomorrow.
It is Gordon’s 58th Bud Pole 478 career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races.
This is his second Bud Pole and third top-10 start in 2007 – all also top-fives.
This is Gordon’s fifth Bud Pole at Bristol – breaking a tie with Fred Lorenzen for the fifth most Bud Poles here.
Gordon moved into a tie with Bobby Allison for fifth on the all-time Bud Pole winners list.
Ward Burton (14th) was the quickest of the drivers required to qualify on time.
Jeremy Mayfield (23rd) and AJ. Allemendinger (35th) qualified for their first race this season. It will be Allmendinger’s career-first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup start.
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