Guess Who? Busch Scores All-Star Pole

If nothing else, Kyle Busch is proving that his 2008 success at Joe Gibbs Racing is a total team effort.

The 23-year-old driver drove to the pole for Saturday night's Sprint Cup All-Star Race XXIV at Lowe's Motor Speedway, just ahead of former teammate Jeff Gordon and brother Kurt Busch.

The qualifying format for the All-Star event is much, much different than a time trial for any other race on the Sprint Cup Series schedule. Instead of a driver making laps on track alone, in the All-Star format the driver has to complete three laps and the pit crew has to perform a four-tire pit stop.

Kyle Busch's crew dropped a four-tire stop of 13.4 seconds, and that combined with his laps gave Busch an elapsed time of 121.956 seconds. Gordon had the same speed of pit stop, but was about a half-second off of Busch's time.

A few penalties were assessed including Dale Jarrett, Kevin Harvick, and Casey Mears earning five-second penalties and speeding on to pit road were Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards, earning each of them a 20-second penalty.

Jimmie Johnson's time was disallowed after missing a lug nut on the pit stop, pulling ahead, and then having service done outside of the pit box area by the Lowe's crew.

Kurt Busch's Miller Lite crew busted out a 12.9-second pit stop which was the fastest of the night. Harvick's team had the same time, but the penalty was a killer.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

5-17-2008 @ 8:44AM

Bernie said...

They are not the best of the pit crews but they are certainly not far off the pace, as fast as Kyle has been that adds up to a very hard team to beat every week.

5-17-2008 @ 10:51AM

RUSH1LIMBAUGH said...

First of all, Kyle should have gotten called for speeding into pit road BUT, of course, we all know that Kyle has NASCAR, Brian France and gang in his pocket. Secondly, Kyle will win the All-Star race according to NASCAR's play book and expect to see Kyle win at least 13 races or more this season to tie or break Jeff Gordon's season record for wins AND, AND,.........Kyle will win his first Championship title in 2008. That is NASCAR's (NWR, NASCAR WORLD RACING) play book for 2008 folks....

5-17-2008 @ 11:22AM

He has you all tightened up around your britches so he and his "well paid possy" must be doing something right... LOL.

5-17-2008 @ 12:34PM

Sorry Bernie my boy, but you're sadly mistaken. 'Well paid possy' has nothing at all to do with it. My information is correct...........just pay attention and watch the end results.... ;-)

5-17-2008 @ 12:59PM

So what your saying is that NASCAR is the WWE? That the season is all a staged act? And the actors (including Brian France)are on the Kyle Busch payroll? It sounds like your taking the wrong kind of meds. If Kyle does win 13 races that is the kind of BS I expect to hear from people who are either so upset to watch him succeed that all they have are rumors to hold on to or others who have a great deal of difficulty handling the truth.

Another reason it would be extremely difficult for any driver to win as many races is the learning curve you have been watching take place with the COT, you have been watching right? I'm sure if that were the case when Jeff Gordon was on that streak 13 races would not have been the record if the COT had been introduced that year. Sorry RUSH my boy but let that simmer in your mind a bit longer and you will see that "your sadly mistaken"!

5-17-2008 @ 1:07PM

I'll just simply say that it is your meds that need checking Bernie. Enjoy your NWR racing.... ;-)

5-17-2008 @ 1:24PM

I definitely am enjoying ever minute. And if your Rush Limbaugh, I'm your Irish uncle... ;-)

5-17-2008 @ 10:09PM

NASCAR FALLS FOR IT! "OPERATION CHAOS" PROVES ITSELF AGAIN! ;-)

5-17-2008 @ 10:18PM

I think nascar got wind of the conspiracy leak (to let Kyle Busch win the all star race) and faked a blown engine don't you agree RL? What a joke. I hope Carl Edwards wins the race.

5-17-2008 @ 10:27PM

Bernie........lol........let's just say that I called it and will end up calling this thing right.... ;-)

5-18-2008 @ 1:08AM

Peaches said...

RUSH YOUR DOCTORS ARE LOOKING FOR YOUR, THEY SAY YOU MISSED YOU MEDS TODAY & LOCKUP!!!!!

GET OFF BERNIE.... YOU KNOW WHEN JEFF & SR WERE ON THEIR
WINNING STREAK NO ONE ACCUSED THEM OF BEING ON ANYTHING,AND BESIDES JGR TRIED SOMETHING NEW THIS WEEK BET IT WANT HAPPEN AGAIN YOU CAN TAKE THAT TO THE BANK MY FRIEND!!!

5-18-2008 @ 3:56AM

OK........"WHO THE HELL LET PEACHES OUT OF HIS CAGE??!!" DAMN DOCTORS! AS I SAID BEFORE IN MY EARLIER POST. EL'RUSHBO HARDLY MISSES.... ;-)

5-18-2008 @ 4:06AM

One last thing to remember peaches,............

"OPERATION NASCAR (NWR)......CHAOS!!" ;-)

5-18-2008 @ 7:21AM

Mike said...

Not that I would mind if Jeff Gordon did hold the record for number of wins in a single season but I think that record actually belongs to THE KING. In 1967 Richard Petty won 27 races in a 48 race schedule. You need to fire your fact checker there Rush.
MBL

5-18-2008 @ 9:48AM

Jerry Clements said...

Why can't you guys just admit that that little Busch boy is DAMN good? He's not my favorite driver but I give credit where it's due and he's pretty amazing behind the wheel.

5-18-2008 @ 10:03AM

Good catch Mike, Peaches, after my last post to this Rush Limbaugh impersonator who claims to have a crystal ball over Nascar... I think he or she is nothing more than someone bored out of their minds trying to have fun with few the Kyle Busch fans. The recent Shrub streak has definitely created a scramble of desperate die hard fans (we won't name the bus they ride) who feel like a trapped possum in the Louisiana Bayous.

Rush, maybe you can tell us how to get the Art poster off of the Toyota advantage conspiracy theory.... LOL That's too damn funny.

5-18-2008 @ 10:44AM

I am not sure who RUSH pulls for Bernie but he is an occassional poster. He is what Anna calls a "drive by blogger."
MBL

5-18-2008 @ 10:56AM

Brad said...

So then Bernie,

Your saying Shrub has created some desperate die-hard fans scrambling ( 1 in Mr. Rash Lipstick ) and your claiming to know something about a 'BUS' and he's the one with a crystal ball, I think that possum just escaped and is swimming to your side of FANTASY ISLAND. LOL....

Aloha, Brad

P.S. Just havin fun Bernie. Also with as dominant as Kyle has been,,,,,why try a new engine pacakage?

5-18-2008 @ 11:41AM

Brad, did you see what RL was saying? He sounded desprate to me, I had no idea we even have fortune tellers around here, we are in an asylum.

I had no idead JGR was experimenting with a new engine package. It sounds to me like they were tesing an engine package for a longer race like the coca - cola 600 without sacrificing position in the standings. A mechanical endurance test of some sort and it didn't work out.

There is a huge difference in an engine running at 7 to 9 thousand RPM's for 400 to 500 hundred miles than for 600 hundred miles. Those extra 1 or 2 hundred miles at the temperatures, pressure, and stress they are running under can make an adjustment errors show up easily in the from of a malfunction, DNF.

5-18-2008 @ 12:04PM

Yeah Bernie, that was more than desperate and sounded more like someone that needs to be in permanent lock down.

I heard one of the anouncers say JGR was trying a package used during speedweeks at Daytona, I'm not sure which toyota teams were using it then but they had problems then and were trying some different parts. It seems they were making even more HP then but there seems to be to much stress on certain motor parts. Personally I hope they don't figure it out, hell it would be an extra long season for anyone not a toyota fan only compounding the dominance of KB so far.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments