Kyle Busch
Truck: Busch turned over the reigns of his truck to Brian Ickler this weekend.
Nationwide: There was no Nationwide race this weekend.
Cup: Running a slick silver Snickers paint scheme, he was 17th at the halfway mark through first practice. He finished 32nd in the first practice. He improved in the second practice, moving up to 25th and dropped two spots to 27th during Happy Hour. Due to rain washing out qualifying, he will start 10th. When the race finally came on Monday due to a rained out Sunday start, he struggled with his car and was nearly lapped until a caution came out on lap 39. He came out 31st from the pits. By lap 86, he moved up to 24th but was still struggling. At the 100 lap mark, he had made his way up to 19th. On lap 115 he was at 15th, slowly making his way to the front and finally was happy with his car. When a caution came out on lap 127, he had made his way into the top 10 (10th place). Quietly, he made his way to sixth at the 200 lap mark. 34 laps later he was in fifth, where he had been for about 25 laps, when a caution came out. Coming off of pit road, he moved up to third. At the halfway mark, he was in fourth. With 200 to go, he was in fifth. On lap 372, after a caution, Busch restarted third. When Kevin Conway spun on lap 420, Busch kept his third place spot coming off of pit road. Busch caught a break when second place Jeff Burton had a right front go down and put Busch in second place with teammate Denny Hamlin leading. When Burton's tire blew, Hamlin and Busch were the only leaders to pit and Busch restarted eighth. Falling back to 19th, Paul Menard got into Busch and sent him into the wall. He took 22nd place at the checkered, one place ahead of his brother.
Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch wasn't running well at the beginning of the first practice, saying his car was terrible. With Crew Chief Steve Addington at the helm, after two stops in the garage, Busch said he ran some of the best laps he's ever run at Martinsville. Is it safe to say this is a great combination that will be together for a long time to come? He came off the track to set up for qualifying and finished 27th. He picked up a lot of spots in the second practice, finishing 15th but dropping five spots to 20th during Happy Hour. With the washed-out qualifying, he will start sixth. When race day finally came on Monday morning, he made his way up to second by lap 39, just before a caution came out. He stayed second through the caution, catching Kevin Harvick. While Busch started second on the restart, he got shuffled back to third by lap 54 by Jeff Gordon. By lap 90 he was in second and fighting for the lead with Gordon, who had taken over the lead from Harvick on lap 54. On lap 100, he was in third but still fighting for the lead. At the caution on lap 127, he was in second, still not having fallen back less than third. On lap 140 he finally got the lead but lost it nine laps later to Jeff Burton. A misunderstanding with his team led him to stay out during a caution on lap 162. After the next restart on lap 181, he took the lead from Mark Martin. By lap 190, he lost the lead to Martin and fell back to fifth. 10 laps later, he was in ninth and falling further with each lap. On lap 234 for a caution, he was in 14th. At the halfway mark (lap 250), he was in 12th. With 200 to go, he was still there. At the 350 lap mark, Busch had calmed down and made his way up to eighth. Busch again fell backwards to 13th after a caution on lap 372 and several laps later took the car to pit road. This green flag stop caused him to go two laps down and to 28th. With 80 laps left, he had only gained two spots after a caution came out. He recovered a little, finishing 23rd, right behind his brother.
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