By Ryan - Posted on March 9, 2010
In a race that featured late-lap crashes – both on purpose and by accident – Kurt Busch pushed the “Blue Deuce” to the front and held on for the win Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway – his 21st career win in the NASCAR Spring Cup Series.
The race featured a spectacular upside-down crash of Brad Keselowski’s car on lap 323, only two laps from the finish. Carl Edwards, who was more than 100 laps down at the time, retaliated for what he considered an error by Keselowski, a wreck on lap 40, where Edwards believed Keselowski crowded him, causing the wreck that sent him to the garage for a time. Edwards hit Keselowski on the front stretch, flipping him. The car landed on its roof, then flipped back over, and slid into the wall in Turn 1. Edwards was black-flagged, and later made a trip to the “Big Red Truck” to have a talk with NASCAR officials.
At the restart on lap 332, the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, Kurt Busch took over the lead from Clint Bowyer. Before the white flag came out, seven cars piled up in turn 3. This set up the second green-white-checkers attempt. After that final restart, Kurt Busch pulled away, and finished nearly a half-second in front of second-place finisher Matt Kenseth.
Kurt Busch wasn’t surprised about his win. “Even with all the restarts, I thought we had the strongest car,” he said. This was the first win for his new crew chief, Steve Addington, who was previously the crew chief for Kurt Busch’s brother, Kyle.
Juan Montoya ran well in this race, challenging Busch for the lead, until the caution caused by the Edwards-Keselowski incident. He finished third, which was his third top-five finish at Atlanta. Kasey Kahne continued his good start this year, leading the most laps with 144, and finishing fourth. His Richard Petty Motorsports teammates Paul Menard and A.J. Allmendinger finished fifth and sixth. Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, and Scott Speed rounded out the top ten.
Jimmie Johnson had a bit of difficulty in this race, with an uncharacteristically poor pit stop and a scrape with Ryan Newman. He finished 12th, which moved him up one spot in the point standings to 4th.
Pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. was unable to take advantage of his premier starting spot. He thought he had a tire going down on lap 114, and pitted under green, only to find out that the tire was fine. He finished 15th at Atlanta, moving up to 13th in the Cup Series standings.
