Bristol winner Busch sees NASCAR's future in fast-closing Larson
Mar. 16, 2013 (EDITORS: Updates with quotes and results)
By Seth Livingstone
Special to NASCAR News Service
BRISTOL, Tenn.--Kyle Busch
caught a glimpse of the future and it was in his rear view mirror coming
to the final turn of Saturday's Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips 300 at
Bristol Motor Speedway.
"I'm 27 and I'm getting
old," said Busch, after holding off 20-year-old NASCAR Drive for
Diversity graduate Kyle Larson in a finish that no doubt aged him
slightly.
Sunoco Rookie of the Year
contender Larson, making his fourth NASCAR Nationwide Series start,
trailed Busch by five car lengths with 10 laps to go but went high
around lap traffic and traded paint
with Busch as the two crossed the finish line .023 seconds apart,
making it the second-closest finish ever at Bristol.
"I did everything I could to
try to protect the momentum," Busch said. "A young kid like that, he's
got a lot of talent. He's obviously made a name for himself. He was
running hard, that's for
sure. He brought a lot to the table today and brought his show to the
fans. "
Coming to the finish line, Busch had a decision to make: Maintain the high line or go low around the lapped car of Brad Teague.
"There were two thoughts,"
Busch said. "You don't ever want to give anyone the bottom for a cheap
shot. Two, I ran the top in (Turns) 1 and 2 and gained so much ground on
(Teague), I was afraid
I was going to run into the back of him coming off Turn 4--or I slow
down any little bit and it hurts my run. Then Larson might have enough
speed on the bottom to beat me back to the line. Knowing that the
start-finish line is only halfway down the straightaway,
I just needed to lunge off the corner to make it."
Larson, from Elk Grove, Calif., was happy to see Busch go low.
"I tried a couple of moves
on Kyle around the bottom and (my car) was just a little too tight off
(the corner) to get back to the throttle. The last lap, I was pretty
happy he went to the bottom
to block a slide-job or whatever. It gave me one more shot to try to
get around him and he left me just enough room to squeeze the outside. I
just missed it by a couple of feet, but it was a lot of fun."
Driving the No. 32 Turner
Scott Motorsports Chevrolet, Larson entered the race simply seeking a
solid result after finishing no better than 13th in any of his first three starts. "We'd
kind of been digging ourselves a hole," he said.
Busch, who started 13th, noted that although Larson didn't win the race, he won a measure of respect.
"You certainly want to win
races the right way," he said. "Coming up, running races in the
Nationwide Series, Cup Series, I didn't win a lot, but the ones that I
did--there's a way of going about
things. There's the way I did it and the way (Brad) Keselowski did
it--ruffling a lot of feathers.
"(Larson) played it smart
today. That was good on his end. I think a lot of people have been
looking at him to try to see whether he was going to be a wrecker or a
checker. Today he didn't get
the checker. That will come. If you're driving into the corner and
driving into the back of me--I'm going to be here for a while. … He's
not going to have fun dealing with me every week. Right now, I'm going
to race him as hard as he raced me but just as clean
as he raced me. "
Busch, who made NASCAR
history at Bristol in 2010 when he became the first driver to win all
three national touring events in the same weekend, appears to be in the
midst of another potentially
dominant weekend. He will sit on the pole for Sunday's Food City 500
and also turned the fastest laps in both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
practice sessions on Saturday.
But Larson turned what looked like it would be a battle between Busch and veteran Kevin Harvick into a three-dog fight.
"I was catching them. I
wasn't sure what I was going to do when I got to them," said Larson, who
stayed on the gas as the two leaders battled their way through lap
traffic.
Busch led 92 of the first
225 laps, however the run for the money began about Lap 230 when Busch
and Harvick approached a five-car group of slower cars. It took nearly
10 laps for the lead duo
to clear the pack and by the time they did, Larson was applying
pressure.
Harvick, who led 43 laps,
elected to pit under caution with 32 laps remaining. Unable to match
Busch's speed while running low on the track and slated to restart on
the inside lane, Harvick elected
to take four fresh tires. He restarted eighth and finished fifth.
Brian Vickers and Sam
Hornish Jr., finished third and fourth. Hornish extended his series lead
to 22 points over Justin Allgaier, the pole-sitter who led the first 62
laps but settled for eighth.
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