Kurt Busch celebrates his win at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the 2010 Kobal Tools 500.
Kurt Busch was able to hold off Matt Kenseth in the final laps and continued his domination at Atlanta Motor Speedway, taking the #2 Miller Lite Dodge to victory lane in the Kobalt Tools 500. The win Sunday is Busch’s second consecutive win in the Spring race at Atlanta.
“I’m just so happy to bring this car home to victory lane,” said Busch in victory lane. “I am so excited for this team and all its sponsors. I am just really happy to bring it on home.”
Busch led 130 laps and secured the victory on Sunday by dominating on the final two restarts. The victory puts Busch 10th in the points standings.
Despite a dominating run throughout the day, Busch had to hold off 2 runs late in the day in the final two restarts of the race.
The only two drivers that could challenge Busch for the victory, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kasey Kahne, had miscues on the final restart of the race, spinning their tires, allowing the #2 Dodge to get a sizeable lead for the final two laps in Atlanta.
The win in Atlanta was also crew chief Steve Addington’s first win with Kurt Busch and with Penske Racing. “I felt confident going in,” said Addington after the race. “It honestly feels good to be with this race team and come back and win before the #18 car.”
On lap 324, as Busch was strolling to victory lane, Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski brought out the caution when Edwards turned the #12 Mopar Dodge, sending it spinning and flipping on the front stretch.
The move by Edwards was seen as payback, as Keslowski had turned the #99 Scotts Ford early in the race, effectively ending the day for Edwards. When asked if the move was intentional, Edwards responded, “Brad knows the deal between him and I. Scary part is the car went airborne, and that’s not at all what I expected.”
Edwards was parked for the rest of the race and was called to the NASCAR hauler for the wreck.
NASCAR had no comment after the meeting regarding possible penalties coming to Edwards.
On lap 333, the caution came out again, after a chain reaction crash in turn 4 involving Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, David Gilliland, and Martin Truex Jr.
Tire wear became an issue early in Atlanta. Most of the wrecks on Sunday were related to blown tires. Goodyear was not concerned with the tire wear, however, citing “aggressive setups” as the reason for the tire issues.
Yet most teams were affected by tire wear.
The first wreck of the race came out on lap 5 when Robby Gordon blew the left rear on his #7 Toyota.
All 4 Hendrick Motorsports cars were affected by the tire wear and were forced to pit off sequence with tire issues, including a wreck by Mark Martin on lap 116.
Joey Logano blew away the front right quarter panel on his Home Depot Toyota on lap 159 when his tire blew and sent the #20 into the wall.
