Busch Wins at His Favorite Track

Kurt Busch worked his magic again at Bristol Motor Speedway, winning his third consecutive NASCAR Nextel Cup race and fourth in the last five tries on the half-mile oval.

Not even a mysterious engine problem and an error in judgment could keep him from winning the Food City 500 on Sunday on his favorite track.

Busch angered crew chief Jimmy Fennig when he made a last-second decision to pass up a tire change with the other leaders under caution 119 laps from the end of the 500-lap race. That put him in the lead for the first time, and he made his worn tires last, holding off Rusty Wallace to the end.

“This one by far has got to be the sweetest because of what we had to overcome,” Busch said of his victories at Bristol, nearly half of his career total of nine. “Our engine had about 1,000 RPM less all day today ... I just couldn’t get the car to handle right. It’s just unreal.”

Busch, who said before the race that winning at Bristol always takes some luck, acknowledged he had plenty of good fortune on Sunday.

Asked why he stayed on the track when the other leaders pitted on Lap 382, he grimaced.

“We only had 20 laps on our tires,” Busch said. “I looked in the mirror and some guys didn’t pit behind us, so I just stayed out. But all those guys were a lap down.

“It was a decision I was wrong on, and I had to bail myself out on it.”

He did that with the help of a series of late-race caution flags that left Wallace, a nine-time winner at Bristol, unhappy and riding a string of 104 consecutive races without a victory despite leading 100 laps and having what appeared to be the fastest car most of the day.

“Doggone, man,” Wallace said, shaking his head. “We didn’t need those last cautions. I was just about to pass him that one time. Man, I wanted that bad. So close.”

There were three cautions in the final 35 laps, the last one coming on Lap 494 when rookie Scott Wimmer and Dale Jarrett bumped, sending Jarrett into the wall. NASCAR red-flagged the race for just over 11 minutes to get the track clean and give the drivers a chance to race to the end.

The green flag waved with two laps to go and Busch’s Roush Racing Ford easily pulled away from Wallace, beating the second-place Dodge to the finish line by 0.428 seconds, about five car-lengths.

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Alex Zanardi is off to a disappointing start in his first full racing season since losing his legs in a crash three years ago.

The former Formula One and CART driver, in a specially modified BMW, finished ninth in the first FIA European Touring Car Championship event of the season at Monza, Italy.

Zanardi started from the fourth row and finished 10th in the second of two races, 22.7 seconds behind winner Jorg Muller of Germany.