BUSCH MAKES JORDAN A WINNER
Kurt Busch was slowly driving his Jordan Brandstyled ride toward victory lane at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., on Sunday when car owner Denny Hamlin stopped him in his tracks, ducked his head through the window and said: “We did it.” Did they ever. Busch survived a weary day of tire attrition, then pinched his way past Kyle Larson for the lead with eight laps to go, before driving away from the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion to win for the first time at Kansas — and give the upand-coming 23XI Racing team owned by Hamlin and NBA great Michael Jordan its second win ever.
“That’s the most gratifying part, helping these guys win,” Busch said. “It’s all about teamwork. I don’t do this alone.”
Larson had the dominant car, riding the top line around the mile-and-a-half oval, but Busch was able to put his Toyota just about anywhere he wanted. That paid off when the two were side-by-side with eight to go and Busch squeezed by Larson, who brushed the wall and lost just enough momentum to surrender the lead — and the win.
Busch pulled his No. 45 car — one of the numbers that Jordan wore during his career — to a stop at the startfinish line and climbed out the window before throwing his arms up in triumph, the familiar Jumpman logo splashed across his fire suit.
It was the second win for 23XI after Bubba Wallace triumphed
last year at Talladega, and it came at the most unexpected of times; neither of the team’s drivers had finished in the top 10 this season.
“You know, we as an organization kind of let these guys down — I’m talking about Bubba and Kurt, all the mistakes we’d made on pit road and whatnot,” Hamlin said. “But let’s talk about the positives. I can’t thank Kurt enough. The Jordan Brand’s first race, so jealous he gets to drive that car, and then to have that thing so fast there, yeah, it’s just — I’ve never had this kind of feeling, even for a win for me, much less when I didn’t win. It’s different.”
There were no hard feelings about the way Busch
raced to the finish, either.
“He never got into me. I’m trying to squeeze throttle to get position on him and just got tight,” Larson said. “That was fun racing with Kurt the last half of the race. I was trying hard the whole time.”
No kidding. At one point with 85 to go, Larson went nearly sideways while racing with Busch for the lead off Turn 2.
“Just hard racing for the win,” Larson said. “I was struggling in traffic a little bit, he was able to get by and from there. I just wanted to hold onto second. Just fought really hard today.”
Kyle Busch, who earlier this week welcomed daughter Lennix Key into the world, managed to avoid the tire
trouble and hold off Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott to win the first stage Sunday. His older brother, Kurt, beat him to the line to take the second stage with Elliott again coming across in third.
Then the same tire problem caught up to Elliott, whose rear went down and sent him spinning across the track with 70 laps to go. Elliott was fortunate to keep his No. 9 out of the wall before coming to rest in the muddy infield.
Elsewhere
Brittany Force won Top Fuel class in the Virginia NHRA Nationals and John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight took the Funny Car crown at Virginia Motorsports
Park in Dinwiddie, Va. Force beat four-time defending season champion Steve Torrence with a 3.770-second pass at 334.07 mph for her third victory of the season and 14th overall. Matt Smith won in Pro Stock Motorcycle, beating Steve Johnson with a 6.842 at 198.35 on a Suzuki.
Acura and Ricky Taylor extended five years of dominance at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and Juan Pablo Montoya went from Indianapolis Motor Speedway to a class victory. Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque won the IMSA race for Wayne Taylor Racing. Montoya raced in the Le Mans Prototype class a day after he finished 24th on the Indianapolis road course.