Kyle Busch finally leads Toyota to its first Sprint Cup victory, in its 40th start. Kyle, the dominant car on the day, got the lead after Carl Edwards lost an engine with about 60 laps remaining to give Toyota its much deserved first win for the year. From the looks of it, it won’t be the last, either.
While Kyle led the most laps, proving to be the dominant car, Carl Edwards seemed to be pulling away for his third straight victory. After a restart with about 80 laps remaining, Carl’s car seemed to have a tire rub, but that smoke turned out to be in the drivetrain, eventually leading to his day ending in smoke, dropping him out of the top 12 in points.
With Carl out of the way, Kyle waltzed into victory lane unchallenged. The most interesting race as the laps wound down was between Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. They battled, along with Greg Biffle, for second, swapping it around several times. Stewart was able to hold on to finish second. Junior held off Biffle for third, leaving Biffle fourth. Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five, with Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers and Jeff Burton constituted the rest of the top ten. Bowyer challenged late before fading to sixth.
While all the emphesis was, and will be, placed on Kyle’s victory, the Toyota that has been impressive is that of Brian Vickers. With his top ten finish, combined with his other finishes this season, he is now firmly in the Top 35, in ninth. After struggling all last season, he can now rest because even if he fails to make the event in Bristol next week, he is a lock to be in the Top 35 after the next race. That means he will be a lock for much of the rest of the season, if not all of it with the season he is having.
Toyota can now enjoy themselves. The pressure to win their first race is off, and with the strength that Busch, Stewart, Vickers and Denny Hamlin have shown, more wins are just on the horizon.
The season now moves to Bristol. After the race there, the Top 35 for this season will begin to come into play. Until after Bristol, last season’s Top 35 is the list used for making the race. After there, they will use this season. That makes this week at Bristol as important for the back of the field as for the front. There are some traditional top teams that may be fighting for their lives this weekend. For certain, the Top 35 will look very different than last season. More on that later this week, though.
Cinch up those belts and let’s go racing. JR
