Sunday, February 13, 2011
File:KurtBuschPole.jpg
Penske Racing driver Kurt Busch won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2011 Budweiser Shootout held yesterday at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. This became his first win of the season, and his first at Daytona International Speedway. Throughout the course of the race there were four cautions and 28 lead changes among ten different drivers.
On the final lap, Denny Hamlin moved aside Ryan Newman, while doing so he moved below the double yellow line (out of bounds), which gave the victory to Busch while he settled for twelfth. Jamie McMurray, who helped Busch win the race by the draft, finished second. Newman finished third ahead of Jimmie Johnson in the fourth position. Greg Biffle was scored fifth, Jeff Gordon finished sixth, while Kevin Harvick could only manage seventh.
Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, and Bobby Labonte rounded out the first ten positions. Also during the race, there was an accident that included seven drivers. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who started on the pole position, discussed the wreck as “too many race cars going for the same real estate.” Another driver, Carl Edwards, said, “We were three or four-wide back there, and I was going between the 88 and the 78, and I don’t think the 78 knew I was in there.” Edwards continued, “He kept coming down, and I just had enough of my car in there. I laid up against the 88 and then the 78 got me in the right-front, but that’s just everybody trying to get the best position they can so we can go out there and race.”
Following the race, Busch commented, “I’ve got to thank my motor department – Jamie McMurray. “When you have a friend like that in this two-car draft, that’s what it takes.” Newman commented about the race by saying it was “the most unexpected race he has ever been a part of.”