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Buschwhacked Busch holds off B. Labonte for third win of seasonPosted: Sunday June 15, 2003 4:57 PMUpdated: Monday June 16, 2003 4:25 PM
BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) -- Kurt Busch became the first three-time Winston Cup winner this season after snatching the lead from Jeff Gordon with 24 laps to go Sunday in the Sirius Satellite 400 at Michigan International Speedway. That was the first time the 24-year-old NASCAR "Young Gun" led the 200-lap race, but a late charge by pole-starter Bobby Labonte came up 0.774-seconds -- about six car lengths -- short. Labonte, a three-time Michigan winner, got one last shot at Busch after Todd Bodine brought out the ninth caution flag of the race with 10 laps remaining when he crashed in turn two on the 2-mile, high-banked oval. Busch's No. 97 Roush Racing Ford had Labonte's Chevrolet nearly on his back bumper when the green flag waved for the start of lap 196. Labonte made a strong move to the top of the track, but Busch held him off and pulled steadily away to his seventh career win. The victory ended a short slump for Busch, who had not finished better than 15th in his last three races. He had seven top-10 finishes in the 11 races before that, including wins at Bristol and Fontana, Calif., and three runner-up finishes.
"We had a setup that was somewhat aggressive at times and somewhat conservative at others, and that's what you need to do at Michigan because this track can eat you up. I knew we had a good car on the short run, and that's the compromise we made." Labonte, who bounced back from a 17th-place run last Sunday at Pocono, finished third or better for the sixth time in his last seven starts. "He knows when to drive it real hard and it seems like he's getting better at getting care of it if it's not quite right," Labonte said, referring to Busch. "He's a fast little racer." Labonte was third when Busch took the lead. He passed Gordon for second on lap 185 after a short side-by-side battle and stayed there to the end.
Gordon, who wound up third, said, "To me, that was a winning effort. Unfortunately, we kept adjusting all day for the long run and it ended up being a short-run shootout." Busch's pass for the lead came just one lap after another restart and Gordon said the youngster won the race because "he's so good on cold tires. He was able to be really aggressive on the restart, took the air off my (rear) bumper and there was nothing I could really do about it." Busch said, "That was going to be our shot to take him and we did." Series points leader and defending race winner Matt Kenseth finished fourth, followed by Michael Waltrip, Sterling Marlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kenseth now leads runner-up Earnhardt by 185 points. Busch, who averaged 131.219 mph in the race slowed by 41 laps of caution, remained fifth in the standings but moved within 65 points of fourth-place Labonte. Marlin led a race-high 102 laps but fell far off the pace when he had a problem on a restart on lap 163 and fell from second to 14th. Tony Stewart, Labonte's teammate and the Pocono winner, finished eighth. There were several crashes in the race, but the most frightening came on lap 37 when Ryan Newman's car burst into flame. Last year's top rookie, who was running third at the time, was suddenly surrounded by flames in the cockpit of his Penske Dodge. As the fire, apparently started when a blown engine cut his oil lines, continued to rage, Newman was able to pull the car to a stop and scramble to safety. His only injury was burns to his face, which Newman said were "no worse than a bad sunburn."
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