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NASCAR

Kyle Busch not pleased after wrecking and finishing 14th

By SceneDaily.com

Jul 5, 2009

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch wasn’t in a talking mood after crashing on the final lap of the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Busch had just gotten the lead from Tony Stewart coming to the white flag, but Stewart made another run off Turn 4 coming to the checkered. Busch blocked low, and then Stewart went high.

When Busch went up to block high, he and Stewart made contact, sending Busch hard into the outside wall. He was fine, but quickly sped away in a golf cart after being checked out in the infield care center.

Instead of a win, Busch left Daytona with a ruined race car and a 14th-place finish. And he left the track without speaking to the media.

“We went for it right there at the end,” crew chief Steve Addington said as the team tried to unload the wrecked No. 18 Toyota. “That’s part of this. This is a product of restrictor-plate racing with these race cars. What are you going to say? Everybody on this race team worked their tails off and we had a good race car.

“I can’t say anything. I’m not pointing any fingers at Tony. He was trying to win the race, Kyle was trying to block him for the win, and we got turned around.”

Stewart said in his winner’s interview that he didn’t like the way the race ended.

“It's nobody's fault, it's just racing,” Stewart said. “I mean, it's a product of the environment. It doesn't mean the environment is bad, it just means that's the way it is. Like I said, he did what he had to do, and he defended his spot and we held our [spot] – it wasn't even that we tried to hold our ground, we just got on his quarterpanel, and that's just how you suck up. As soon as he moved, I didn't anticipate him moving and went across the nose.

Addington said the finish was a “big disappointment.”

“[Busch] was patient all night long and sat there and rode,” Addington said. “[Spotter] Jeff [Dickerson] kept telling him to just click off laps and we didn’t have any power issues. We were just fine. We took care of tires all night long and wanted to be there at the end because we needed to have a good points day and we were in a position to go for the win and he did and we end up wrecked. What are you going to say?”