Kyle Busch first to make playoff final

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Many racing fans have been clamoring for years for NASCAR to add more short tracks to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Sunday’s crashfest — also known as the First Data 500 — at Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR’s shortest track, probably will add intensity to that campaign.

The race ended in chaos and calamity, with wreck after wreck and caution after caution, leading to a fleet of crashed cars, hot tempers and a some- what predictable winner — Kyle Busch. A brief summary:

Brad Keselowski had a comfortable lead with nine laps to go. Joey Logano, Keselowski’s Team Penske teammate, blew a tire that had been damaged by contact, causing a caution flag that cost Keselowski his cushion.

The ensuing green flag, with four laps left in the race, opened the door to barely controlled mayhem. Chase Elliott pushed Keselowski up the track to take the lead, then Denny Hamlin sailed into Elliott’s rear end, forcing Elliott into a spin and hard into the outside wall.

Hamlin took the lead, but the result- ing caution sent the race into overtime, when Busch, the driver you might bet on amid such wackiness, moved through the field as Hamlin crashed, winning the race over Martin Truex Jr.

Truex could have crashed Busch — practically everyone else crashed somebody — and pirated the win, but Truex played nice and finished second.

“It never crossed my mind to knock him out of the way,” Truex said. “It seems like a lot of guys made enemies tonight, and we didn’t. With three races to go, I don’t want enemies.

“I try to race a certain way. That’s just how I race. The hole was there, and I got in it. I thought I could beat him fair and square, but I just couldn’t get power down off Turn Four.”

The toughest pill to swallow from all the hard medicine that was dispensed over the final 10 laps was pushed down Elliott’s throat. Searching for a careerfirst victory that seemingly will never come, Elliott had this one in hand until the brutal encounter with Hamlin.

That crash led to the two drivers having a very uncomfortable conversation after they stopped their cars.

Hamlin is not likely to be invited to the Elliott family Thanksgiving. He also didn’t get a positive reception from many of the fans in the frontstretch grandstand who booed as he was interviewed. When the TV cameras moved to Elliott, he was cheered.

More than a few beverage cans rained down on pit road in the minutes after the race, fans voting with their throwing arms as to which drivers they might have blamed for one or more of the late-race encounters.

In the aftermath of Sunday’s shenanigans, more might follow. Drivers seldom forget. Elliott was especially irritated by Hamlin’s actions; and Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick had an animated post-race conversation about contact between their cars.

“I think you saw what you’re going to see at these next coming events,” said Adam Stevens, Busch’s crew chief. “When you’re going 180 miles per hour (at Texas in the next race), it’s harder to get to somebody’s bumper. It’s part of the sport, and when you amp it up you get more of it.”

And that brings us back to the question to Truex: Why didn’t you wreck Busch to win? “After hearing the crowd in the stands, they probably would have loved it if I did,” Truex said.

And the response of third-place finisher Clint Bowyer, another survivor? “I know I was entertained,” he said.