Kyle Busch dominates early, but engine sours

JIM UTTER

The Charlotte Observer

Saturday, May. 17, 2008

• Opinion | With Busch out, boredom rules

CONCORD, N.C. - The good news for Kyle Busch? And there was good news.

He didn't lose any points for blowing his engine in Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway and his Joe Gibbs Racing team may decide that utilizing a new engine package like it did Saturday is too risky for next weekend's Coca-Cola 600.

The bad news, obviously, was Busch's losing any shot at the $1 million first prize despite having a car that was head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

"We had a problem with it when we were here (earlier this month) testing, but we put over 800 miles on these things and the team felt pretty safe about it," said Busch, who had started on the pole for the all-star event and led the first 38 laps.

"What a fast race car that thing was. It was definitely pretty good."

Busch ended up last in the 24-car field.

Although there were no points on the line, Busch said it was frustrating to have a car clearly capable of winning and not be able to complete the deal.

"If we were running second or third to somebody who was dominating like us or running like us, then that wouldn't have hurt as bad," he said.

"It's unfortunate for all of us. The guys on this team wanted to win just as bad and we missed out tonight. It wasn't our night. Hopefully, we'll be able to come back for the 600."

Busch's teammate, Tony Stewart, had to start from the rear of the field because his team elected to change his engine. Busch said he wasn't sure if Stewart's engine had a similar problem.

It was the second consecutive night Busch had a dominate car at Charlotte only to come away without a victory.

He led a race-high 86 laps in Friday night’s Truck series race but was involved in a late-race wreck while racing with Ron Hornaday and ended up finishing eighth.

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