Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne dominated the Kobalt Tools 500, leading 273 of the race’s 341 laps. But the Dodge dominance at Atlanta Motor Speedway was overshadowed by the on-track battle between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, one that ended with Keselowski airborne and Edwards ordered to the garage.
Busch held off Kahne and Juan Pablo Montoya while surviving two late restarts to claim his first win of 2010. Matt Kenseth slipped past Juan Pablo Montoya on the final restart to finish second, while Montoya settled for third. Kahne finished fourth, and Paul Menard finished a career-high fifth.
“I’m just so happy to bring this car home to victory lane,” Busch said. “With new crew chief Steve Addington and all his new ideas, I didn’t know how we could mesh them together and how soon we were able to do it. We were able to get it right and hit all our marks just perfect today. Even on all the restarts at the end, I just felt like we had the car to beat today.”
Meanwhile, the Edwards-Keselowski scuffle was creating quite the buzz following the race. The series of events started on lap 41, when Keselowski and Edwards made contact, sending Edwards into the No. 20 Toyota of Joey Logano. Edwards was forced to take his car to the garage for repairs, where he spent much of the remainder of the race.
Edwards did return to the track some time later, but it was with seven laps to go that Edwards pulled
up alongside Keselowski, and appeared to turn his steering wheel to the right and make contact with the rear of Keselowski’s No. 12 Dodge.
The contact sent Keselowski airborne, causing his car to land upside-down on the SAFER barrier, then flipping back over before coming to a stop on the infield grass. The wreck caused significant damage to Keselowski’s car. NASCAR officials ordered Edwards to return to the garage and retire from the race for retaliation.
Keselowski, who was okay, had this to say after leaving the infield care center.
“I apologized to Carl for the earlier incident, but he cut right down in front of me – there was nothing I could do. But to come back out and intentionally wreck somebody – It could have killed somebody in the grandstands,” Keselowski said.
“I know that’s a little ironic that it’s got me saying that, but at least I didn’t do it intentionally when it happened. It will be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball. If they’re going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or in the grandstands,” he added.
Martin Truex Jr. of Ocean County ran strong all day, spending a majority of the race in the top 10 before being involved in the final wreck. He finished 27th.
Jimmie Johnson, who was attempting to win his third straight race, fell short of the task due to a rare mistake on pit road by his Hendrick Motorsports team. He finished 12th. Polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 15th.
Camping World Truck Series: Kevin Harvick made his first start of 2010 in the Camping World Truck Series, leading 100 of 130 laps to win the E-Z -Go 200 last Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was Harvick’s third victory in his last three CWTS starts. Kyle Busch was second, followed by Aric Almirola in third, Mike Wallace in fourth, and Todd Bodine in fifth.
Coming Up: All three series have the weekend off before heading off to Bristol Motor Speedway for the first short-track action of 2010.
Bruce Knoll, 17, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at bknoll jr4cmcherald@yahoo.com
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Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
