Kyle Busch wins Sprint Cup 400-mile race at Kentucky

Tribute to 24: In addition to the 96 bottles of bourbon presented to Jeff Gordon on Friday, Kentucky Speedway gave tribute to Gordon with a large billboard in Turn 2.

“To me”, Starr said, controversy over flags at NASCAR races is “just ridiculous”.

Kyle Busch picked up a huge win for his season at the Quaker State 400.

Busch climbed two spots in the championship points standings from 37th to 35th, 87 points behind 30th-place driver Cole Whitt. “We were quick in race trim off the truck, and then we went back to mock qualifying trim and were really fast”. Ryan Newman stayed out to take the lead on the restart on lap 192, but Busch quickly got around him and ran out to a sizable advantage.

Next weekend the Sprint Cup Series will run at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The three-time Sprint Cup champion and Columbus native wound up 33 after he got caught up in an accident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Jeb Burton on the 144th lap. Obviously it’s on our mind, but I’m not thinking about the points gained when we win.

It eventually became a battle between Busch and Logano before Busch finally had something to show for his dominance, a night after leading a race-high 88 laps in the Xfinity series event in finishing third behind victor Keselowski.

Logano started off this year with a bang with the win at the Daytona 500, but he hasn’t really been a factor since. Following the pass, Logano had no answer for Busch, who drove away. “I like the new aero package, obviously”. I just moved down and went a little bit lower and got my auto to stick and was able to power through and get back by him.

“But I went into that corner and mashed the brakes to the floor”. Joe Gibbs Racing put all four of its drivers in the top five for the first time in team history.

Logano, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.

Besides Keselowski, it was worth noting that Jeff Gordon, my pick for this race, raced a hard-fought battle but was unable to capture his first crown at Kentucky in the quest for winning everywhere. As the groove widened out, drivers in the middle of the pack were able to size each other up for passing opportunities. “Whose fourth? And how many ahead are they?” He has eight more races to make up the deficit. Bowyer starts Saturday night 30th. And while the results certainly looked encouraging, the anticipation also bears mention.

Top 10 in Points: C. Buescher – 593; C. Elliott – 557; T. Dillon – 547; E. Sadler – 528; R. Smith – 527; D.

The 2015 Sprint Cup season began with fair questions about how Joey Logano’s team would respond after those pit problems at Homestead. And one that may not have a clear-cut answer.

Saturday night the new package seemed to present few issues, there were a record number of cautions, 11, but none for any big crashes.

“It says a lot about their willingness to try different things”, Edwards said.

Dan Farkas Dan Farkas has won more than two-dozen awards for his reporting and started writing about NASCAR in 2007. Busch wasted no time retaking the lead on the restart, as Newman fell back to eighth place.

“As NASCAR distanced itself from the stars and bars following a deadly shooting in South Carolina of nine black churchgoers, tracks, too, signed on to the series” statement issued July 2.