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Mar. 02, 2009
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LOCAL EXPRESS: Kyle Busch grabs first win at Speedway

SHELBY 427 NASCAR SPRINT CUP RACE

By JEFF WOLF
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
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Kyle Busch celebrates Sunday after winning the Shelby 427 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was his first win in six career Cup starts at the track.
Photo by John Locher.



Kyle Busch (No. 18) passes Jeff Burton late in the Shelby 427 NASCAR Sprint Cup race Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Busch, a graduate of Durango High School, got his first win in six career Cup starts at the track. The race was Busch's first win this year in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series.
Photo by Ched Whitney/Review-Journal



Kyle Busch climbs from his car after winning the Shelby 427 on Sunday. He drove from the back of the field to win the race.
Photo by The Associated Press

Imagine Greg Maddux pitching in a pivotal game and getting the last strikeout for a major league victory on his old Valley High School diamond.

Or Andre Agassi pounding a match-winning groundstroke to win a major tennis title here.

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    • Neither of those great athletes, who call Las Vegas home, ever had that chance. But NASCAR racer Kyle Busch has had that chance the past five years and on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he capitalized on the opportunity on a perfect day for racing.

    The 23-year-old native son not only won the Shelby 427 Sprint Cup race before about 140,000, he did it by starting deeper in the 43-car field than any of the event's previous 12 winners.

    "I tell you what, this is pretty cool," he said. "I didn't know exactly what it would mean, but coming to the checkered flag, there were knots in my stomach. It's bigger than winning the Daytona 500. I said it wasn't going to be, but it is."

    It's Busch's first Cup win of the season, and 12th in 153 races. The near-capacity crowd, which didn't seem to let a bad economy stop them from attending, didn't rush to beat the anticipated post-race traffic jam.

    Instead, nearly all stayed in the grandstand to savor Busch's long, smoky celebratory burnouts at the start-finish line. After getting out of the car to capture the winning checkered flag, he kneeled at the finish line and kissed the track.

    "When we were racing out at the Bullring, this was nothing but a dirt lot," he said. "This was actually part of the parking lot I think for the Bullring racetrack. So it's come a long way.

    "I'll do it (kiss the track) every time I win here. I don't plan to do it at every track; some of them are pretty dirty."

    Busch won the pole for the race on Friday, but a mechanical problem forced his Joe Gibbs Racing team to replace the engine resulting in an automatic NASCAR penalty that dropped him to the 38th starting spot.

    The worse qualifying position for the past 11 Las Vegas Cup winners had been 25th.

    No driver had ever won the pole and won the race at the 1.5-mile tri-oval located across from Nellis Air Force Base.

    The graduate of Durango High School, who now lives in Mooresville, N.C., isn't new to milestones.

    When older brother Kurt Busch, the 2004 Cup series champion, qualified second to him on Friday, they became only the third pair of brothers to claim the front row for a Cup race in the 61-year history of NASCAR.

    Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247

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    MW wrote on March 02, 2009 03:27 PM: Ken ... I'd rather see my bailout dollars working here than being given to some paper shuffler at AIG !!!

    I'm one of the people looking at trading my current American car in on a new American car.

    I guess unlike your glass, mine is half full !!!




    please wrote on March 02, 2009 02:12 PM: not a sport.


    Ken wrote on March 02, 2009 01:43 PM: Your bailout dollars at work. I'm only concerned about how many people left the venue wanting to buy an American car.


    Dan wrote on March 02, 2009 10:57 AM: 4 hours to get out? I left right after the victory spin out and once I got to my car, I was on LV Blvd in less than 10 minutes and out of the area in another 10.
    however coming to the track, it took 50 minutes to get from Craig to the Speedway. The lack of signs did not help.


    strad wrote on March 02, 2009 10:26 AM: I was there, and I enjoyed the race. However, the parking management leaves a whole lot to be desired. Parking attendants should be networked with each other so all know which lots are full and can direct traffic accordingly, the police should know what is going on when you ask one of them a question, and it should not take four hours to exit the property after the race. I will not be attending a NASCAR race at LVMS again if this is typical of the way they manage ingress/egress.


    Melinda wrote on March 02, 2009 09:11 AM: I personally am a Kasey Kahne fan. However, I thought it was a fantastic win for Kyle Busch as I am a native to Las Vegas as well. I don't think it would have been as good for anyone else - I can't imagine anyone else appreciating it as much. Great job Kyle!


    Vegas wrote on March 02, 2009 07:10 AM: Robin Leach is always pathetic. He obviously is connected, somehow.

    Fun time. But, the fans get ripped off when they aren't allowed to watch the Victory Circle celebration unless they pay hundreds more.

    It's not right to deprive thousands of fans the chance to see it.


    Dan wrote on March 02, 2009 05:09 AM: It was a pretty good race. The only sour spot was the driver's introduction. Couldn't they have gotten someone who knew how to prounce the driver's name? Robin Leech was pathetic.