Kurt Busch wins rain-shortened race at Michigan
Kurt Busch is glad the rain took a little longer than Kyle Larson and his team had hoped.
Busch got the lead after Larson was forced to pit for fuel and was winning when NASCAR was forced to throw a caution flag for rain at Michigan International Speedway for the fourth time on Sunday. The fourth time ended up being the final time as the downpour forced NASCAR to call the race after 138 of a scheduled 200 laps at after 5:30 Eastern Time. It’s Busch’s second win of the season.
Larson’s strategy started when a debris caution came out on lap 124. He had been out fornearly a full fuel run and needed to pit soon to not run out of gas. But with rain imminent on the radar, he and crew chief Chris Heroy decided to keep their track position under the yellow flag and inherited the lead. He sprinted out to a gap over Busch and maintained it until he had to pit.
The race was under caution for the rain three laps later.
Busch worked his way to the front of the field throughout the intermittent race with a backup car. He hit the wall with his primary car in the first practice session and his team rolled out a backup. Since he qualified the backup (24th), he was able to keep his starting position and didn’t have to start at the back of the field.
Busch won earlier this year at Richmond. The 2004 Sprint Cup Series champion was suspended for the first three races of the season after he was deemed to have more likely than not committed an act of abuse against his ex-girlfriend by a Delaware family court commissioner. He was reinstated from his indefinite suspension after the Delaware attorney general’s office declined to press charges citing a lack of evidence.
He was given a waiver to make NASCAR’s Chase and, as of now, will start the playoffs with six extra points because of the two wins.
Kevin Harvick had the race’s fastest car but his run towards the checkered flag was derailed by a flat right-front tire. After pitting for four tires not long before the race was called, Harvick had to come back to pit road a lap later as the valve stem was missing from his tire, likely knocked off by the air gun on the pit stop.
The final stoppage for rain was preceded by the race’s longest dry stretch. The race restarted after the third red flag on lap 51. The first two red flags came at laps 13 and 19. The three delays totaled approximately two hours.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
