Kyle Busch reminded the Sprint Cup field he can drive a stock car to victory anywhere, anytime Sunday at the Infineon Raceway.  Busch held off David Gilliland in an overtime shootout to take his second road racing win in two tries this season.

The talk of the garage had been lack of focus by Busch, but a weekend of racing solely in the Cup series allowed for a renewed focus on the biggest prize in NASCAR - the Sprint Cup.

“We unloaded here and we were just junk.  It’s just phenomenal that we’re able to be here in victory lane,” Busch said.  “We came a long ways with this thing.  We came so far, and that’s just cool.”

Busch celebrated in typical fashion, performing a spectacular burnout on the Infineon Raceway front stretch.  When he climbed from the smoking no. 18 car it was cheers instead of jeers for Busch, who has become NASCAR fans’ favorite driver to hate in 2008.

Consecutive restarts saw Busch jump away from the field, leaving both Tony Stewart and Gilliland in his wake.  Gilliland went on the finish a career best second place.

“It’s incredible.  It means a lot to me, but Yates Racing - it’s amazing what we’ve been able to do in the last year,” Gilliland said.

Second might have been Gilliland’s best career finish since joining NASCAR’s top series, but it wasn’t his best finish at Infineon Raceway.  Gilliland won twice in NASCAR’s lower support series, including the NASCAR West Series race in 2007.

“This tops them all right here,” Gilliland said.

Five-time former winner Jeff Gordon played the strategy card to get in the top five.  After starting fifth, Gordon gradually sank further back into the field, bottoming out in 23^rd.  The no. 24 team pitted in a timely manner and was able to stay out under caution when most of the field hit pit road.

“I thought I was going to wreck.  We got on pit road just as the caution came out and we were able to gain a bunch of spots,” Gordon said.  “We weren’t bad at the end to be honest, but we just missed it in the beginning.”

Crew chief Steve Letarte took blame for Gordon’s troubles.  “He’s smarter than the rest of them.  He hasn’t made any mistakes. You’re talking about a four-time champion, five-time winner at this track showing how strong he is,” Letarte said.

Third in points Dale Earnhardt Jr. took advantage of a similar strategy as the 24 team.  The no. 88 ran outside the top 15 for much of the race, but pitting before the caution allowed Earnhardt to finish a modest 12^th.

“I’ve got about four more weeks before they ask me when I’m going to win again…then they’ll crank up the championship talk,” Earnhardt told TNT’s Lindsey Czarniak.

Busch stretched his championship lead back over the century mark.  Jeff Burton now sits 109 points back after a 15^th place run, and Earnhardt is 149 behind heading into New Hampshire.

The 2008 edition of the road ringers at Infineon went just like the previous ones - badly.  Brian Simo exited early after being black flagged by NASCAR.  Boris Said sat on pit road for multiple laps with brake problems.  Ron Fellows and Max Papis were both involved in wrecks not of their making.

Marcos Ambrose set fast lap many times through the race in his no. 21 Wood Brothers Ford, but parked it on lap 84 after losing the transmission.  Ambrose ran as high as second place in his Sprint Cup debut, showing something positive for a team that has been struggling.

A spin on lap 105 by Kevin Harvick caused a domino effect that took second place Tony Stewart and third place Jamie McMurray out of contention.  Ron Fellows ran into the aftermath, ruining the day for a total of four top ten cars.  Stewart declined comment after the race but was noticeably upset.

Stewart caused the sixth and final lap 108 caution when he ran into the back of road racing ace Scott Pruett.  Martin Truex was also involved in the melee, banishing him to an 18^th place finish.

31 cars finished on the lead lap, and 38 of the 43 starters were running at the finish.  Elliot Sadler barely made it past the finish line before a soft tire gave way.  Sadler ended up backing his car in the wall, but was able to limp to a 19^th place finish.

You can contact Jonathan at jlintner@gmail.com

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