(By Sarah Farlee Managing Editor, CupScene.com)
Posted: Sunday,June 26th, 2011
Sonoma, Calif., —Kurt Busch completely dominated the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway on Sunday on the way to Bush’s first win of the 2011 season.
Busch said it was one of those unbelievable days where a plan just comes together.
“It was just old school on how we were going to make two stops,” said Busch of the strategy coming into the race. “With the pace dropping off like we saw it in practice, it was going to take one of those perfect efforts to make sure we maintained our lap time throughout the run to be able to make it on the stops and not worry about tires as well as fuel strategy side of it.”
Kurt Busch wins at Infineon Raceway. It is the 23rd career win for Busch. (Getty Images)
Crew chief Steve Addington said it was all about sticking to the plan and said that Busch’s performance early made the decision to try a two stop strategy easier to make.
“We felt like we had the speed in our car to go to our lap,” said Addington. “Didn’t matter what everybody else was doing.”
“We were paying attention to what was going on, but we didn’t vary from what we had planned,” Addington added. “That worked out the best for me in road course races, is to hit those laps we had planned.”
Busch hit it out of the park and coming to lap 23 had a near 20 second lead on the field. That domination seems to be a common thread in Busch’s performance as of late, including three pole awards and now a win.
“We’ve been on a great run these last few weeks,” said Busch, who moved to fourth in the points standings. “It’s a matter of just continuing each week to get better.”
TOYOTA SAVEMART 350 RESULTS>>>
“These next few weeks, you have to show your versatility if you want to be a frontrunner towards the Chase,” Busch added.
Jeff Gordon is looking at a Chase spot after a second place finish and finally getting into the top-10 in points. Gordon said early in the race was a struggle, but made several adjustments to get the car right for the end.
“I really think the adjustments we made really did work on just helping the car turn into the corner a little bit better and getting us pointed up off the corner so we could drive off a little straighter,” Gordon said.
“We struggled in every aspect,” added Gordon, who said there was not one corner the car was good in. “Normally when you’re off a little bit, there’s normally one corner you’re good in.”
Carl Edwards retains the points lead with a third place finish. Edwards said it was an overall crazy race.
“To be able to escape out of here with a top three is a good day with us,” said Edwards. “Especially considering everything that went on out there.”
Clint Bowyer finished fourth and Marcos Ambrose finished fifth. Pole sitter Joey Logano finished sixth, Jimmie Johnson finished seventh, and Martin Truex, Jr. finished eighth. Kevin Harvick was ninth and Brad Keselowski finished 10th.
Edwards leads the Sprint Cup points standings, 25 points over Harvick and 33 points over Johnson. Kurt Busch moves to fourth (-34) and Kyle Busch is fifth (-37). Matt Kenseth (-53) is sixth, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. drops to seventh (-65) and Clint Bowyer is eighth (-77). Gordon moves into the top-10 and is ninth (-93) while Newman hangs on to the 10th spot (-98).
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