AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Kurt Busch forgot all about being stiff
and sore Saturday night, racing to his first victory of the season
at Phoenix International Raceway.
The defending NASCAR Nextel Cup champion led 219 of 312 laps on
the mile oval, emphatically putting behind him a streak of bad luck
that included crashes at four consecutive events, including an IROC
race a week ago at Texas Motor Speedway.
Greg Biffle, the hottest driver on NASCAR's top circuit, was the
only competitor able to challenge his Roush Racing teammate during
the first half of the Subway Fresh 500, the first Cup race run
under the lights at PIR. But Biffle, who won the Cup race last
Sunday at Texas and took the checkered flag here Friday night in a
Busch Series race, lost his shot at another win in the pits.
A caution period for debris on the track was extended by a brief
power outage that took out the track's caution lights and forced
NASCAR to stop the race for nearly 7 minutes. On the ensuing
restart on lap 146, Biffle got by Busch, but it took only two laps
for the eventual winner to slip by on the inside and regain the top
spot.
That was it for Biffle, who collided with the car driven by Mike
Bliss on pit road during the next caution period and wound up with
extensive damage to the front of his car, including a hole in his
radiator. The team tried to repair the damage but eventually gave
up as Biffle was credited with finishing 40th.
Busch slipped back into the pack for a while during a flurry of
caution flags and pits stops, but charged from ninth on a restart
on lap 211 to regain the lead, passing Jeff Gordon for the top spot
on lap 227.
Then Busch had to do it again.
This time, eight drivers remained on track when Busch and
several other leaders pitted during a caution -- one of nine in the
race -- on lap 240. Busch restarted ninth and began slashing through
heavy traffic, moving steadily forward until finally driving past
Michael Waltrip to take the lead for good on lap 269.
Waltrip tried hard to chase him down, nearly getting by on lap
299 before wiggling hard and then scraping the wall.
Busch held on the rest of the way, using lapped traffic to his
advantage. He beat Waltrip's Chevrolet to the finish line by 2.315
seconds -- about 10 car-lengths -- for his 12th career victory. Jeff
Burton was third, followed by Waltrip's teammate, Dale Earnhardt
Jr., Vickers, Bobby Labonte and Carl Edwards.
It was the fourth victory in eight races this season for Jack
Roush's teams.
"Kurt Busch gave them a clinic tonight," Roush said. "I was
sure he was hurting his tires at the end, but he saved just
enough."
The start of the race was delayed about 30 minutes by a late
afternoon rain shower, but there were no more weather problems.