Rowdy in Kentucky

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series made it's way to the Kentucky Speedway for race 18 of the 2011 season, which means after this race the season is officially 50% in the history books. Kyle Busch would be on the pole for the event with Juan-Pablo Montoya on the outside of the front row. Older brother Kurt Busch lines up on the inside of row two... right behind Kyle.

Kyle Busch would fail to lead any of the first 31 laps after his brother Kurt passed Kyle and Montoya to assume the race lead on the opening lap. A caution on lap 31 is how Kurt Busch in that #22 car lost the lead. After the restart on lap 36 Kasey Kahne would lead one single lap before Rowdy Busch made the clean pass for the lead. After this short green flag run it was easy to notice that Montoya, Gordon, Burton, Bowyer, Hamlin, and Smith were struggling with the handling on their race cars. I guarantee they were ecstatic about the caution coming out so they could make the adjustments necessary to improve their cars.

Throughout the first half of the race it was David Reutimann who was making the most progress on track position. David started in the 17th position and found himself running in 4th place on lap 87 of 267. At this point Kasey Kahne and the Busch brothers have been in the top five positions all race long. Jimmie Johnson would once again crack the top 5 by passing Reutimann around lap 111. While these respectful drivers compete for respectful positions, Kyle Busch is increasing his race lead with every green flag lap. Experts like myself automatically know that nobody can beat that #18 Toyota, unless further handling adjustments are made to the rest of the drivers.

Long periods of time while under green-flag racing conditions at a 1.5 mile oval can cause large amounts of cars to be put one or more laps down. 4-time Champion Jeff Gordon was running in 23rd place on lap 107 when Kyle Busch put him a lap down. Jamie McMurray struggled all race long, he would fall a lap down to the leader on lap 114. After green flag pit stops (which began around lap 118) concluded, a couple more drivers like Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr found themselves a lap down as well. For a while it looked like a lot of drivers had a long race ahead of them.

The second caution of the day came out on lap 140. I was surprised to see both Busch brothers elect to take fuel only on their pit stops despite them running 1st and 2nd. I always thought that the tires were much more important than that. All of the drivers I named in the previous paragraph that went a lap down during green-flag racing took the "Wave Around" rule to get back on the lead lap. The "Wave Around" rule gives the drivers one lap down a choice... pit to get required service or elect not to pit to be placed back on the lead lap. Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart both elected not to pit so they would lead the field to the green flag for the restart on lap 147. Although they don't have fresh tires Keselowski keeps the lead and Stewart only slips back to 3rd place.

Could you imagine if you were competing in the Sprint Cup Series, your in the race lead, but you're having major communication problems with your crew chief and spotter. While under caution on lap 152 NASCAR listened in on Brad Keselowski's radio communications. You can hear all three of them talking, but Brad cannot hear anything either of them says. If I was in this situation I would assume the spotter can still communicate with my crew chief. The next opportunity I have I would make a pit stop and trust him to notify my crew chief and my crew that i'm coming down pit road. While i'm on pit road I would let them know certain hand signals to be more accurate with adjustments. I would also have to watch the mirrors more often since I have nobody warning me of potential contact.

After a long race full of struggles for Jamie McMurray he brings out the fourth caution of the race on lap 200 with an engine failure. When this took place the field was in the middle of a green-flag pit stops sequence. David Ragan, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr, and Jeff Gordon were the only four drivers on the lead lap that didn't pit before the incident occured. These drivers had to surrender the top four spots to pit for fuel and tires. Drivers like Reutimann, Edwards, Biffle, Ambrose, Harvick, Menard, Burton, Smith, Logano, Earnhardt Jr, Kahne, and Martin had made pit stops but were pinned a lap down from the caution. They would all take advantage of the "Wave Around" rule.

Just when you think it's all over there was still one final set of pit stops that these drivers had to complete. Once again a caution would interrupt the cycle of pit stops. Dale Earnhardt Jr would cut a tire down not even a complete lap after changing four tires during his pit stop. This happened on lap 254... 14 laps to go. This time it was Reutimann, Kyle Busch, Johnson, Keselowski, Kenseth, and Kurt Busch that were yet to pit, and over 13 drivers had to again take advantage of the "wave around" rule to once again be on the lead lap. This was certainly an event where nobody knew where their driver would finish on the "Results" paper.

In the end, Kyle Busch would hold off a hard-charging David Reutimann to win his 22nd career Sprint Cup series race. That #18 M&M's Toyota was the class of the competition in the Quaker State 400. He led 125 laps in the Quaker State 400, Keselowski led 79 laps. "Rowdy" Busch has passed Kevin Harvick as the new points leader and now sits four points ahead of Carl Edwards. David Reutimann (2nd) and Ryan Newman (4th) both earned their best finishes of 2011. After seeing Reutimann be so strong at Kentucky on Saturday night, it's surprising to know he only has two top 10 finishes in the 18 races completed this year.

Quaker State 400 Results:

1. Kyle Busch

2. David Reutimann

3. Jimmie Johnson

4. Ryan Newman

5. Carl Edwards

6. Matt Kenseth

7. Brad Keselowski

8. David Ragan

9. Kurt Busch
10. Jeff Gordon
12. Tony Stewart
13. Kasey Kahne
16. Kevin Harvick

Images from: http://www.nascar.com/news/110709/kybusch-win-kentucky/index.html
Written by: Tyler McMurter