Busch wins, hates car after historic race event
BRISTOL, Tenn. — The first Car of Tomorrow race is in the books, and NASCAR's stars were divided on their assessment of it.
Kyle Busch hated it, and he won Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway. But veterans Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon cautioned that it was too early to make any sort of decision on the COT.
NASCAR, though, was pleased with the debut.
"From the tower, I thought it was a good race," competition director Robin Pemberton said. "I think you saw there were more competitors up front ... teams that aren't used to running in the top 10 or 15.
"And there were people concerned with the splitter hitting the race track and all kinds of nightmarish things, you saw there were no problems with that. We were pleased."
But NASCAR is taking two of the cars back to North Carolina for further inspection. Fifth-place finisher Greg Biffle was too low in post-race inspection, so his car is going to the R&D Center, as is Busch's race-winning Chevrolet.
Busch disliked the car so much, he probably shouldn't mind losing it to NASCAR. But as the Nextel Cup Series rolls into Martinsville Speedway, where the COT will be used again this week, his Hendrick Motorsports team needs the car back.
Pemberton vowed the teams would have the cars back before they miss them, much to Busch's chagrin.
"I'm still not a fan of these things, they (stink)," Busch said. "I didn't see any real highlights out there. It was just tough to pass. It was kind of boring."
Not the end of the race.
Busch held off teammate Gordon on a restart, then beat Burton in a drag race to the finish line to get the win.
Busch took the lead with 16 laps to go on a smooth pass around Denny Hamlin in thick traffic and stayed there through a pair of cautions. Busch had driven away from the competition when the 15th and final caution set up overtime.
With Busch and Gordon running 1-2 at the restart, the two plotted their own strategy with their respective crew chiefs.
"Well, good job guys," Busch sighed at the final caution. "We'll do what we can. I can't promise you anything."
"He'll be nice," crew chief Alan Gustafson said. "He'll play nice."
It didn't sound that way on Gordon's channel.
"Tell that 5, if I get a fender underneath him, he better think about the fact that we're teammates," Gordon said. "If I don't get a fender underneath him, I won't move him out of the way."
It never mattered, though, as Burton jumped past Gordon on the restart and quickly pulled onto Busch's rear bumper. Burton looked low and Busch threw a block, then he went high and Busch blocked that, too.
Burton finally pulled alongside Busch as they closed in on the finish line, but Busch nipped him at the flag for his first Nextel Cup victory on a short track.
