Compliments of NASCAR, Inc

LOUDON, N.H. -June 29, 2008- Former series champion Kurt Busch stayed on track when the leaders pitted late in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire and the strategy paid off with a win when the race was cut 17 laps short by rain.

It is the first victory for the Penske Racing driver since this past September at Fontana and it came on a day when two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart dominated, only to see his hard luck continue and his winless string increase to 31 races.
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"These guys made an awesome call,'' Busch said. "Sometimes you just don't win 'em the right way, I think we can honestly say that, but we had a lot of work and a lot of effort put in today and we'll take it.''

Stewart held off a challenge from two-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson late in the 301-lap race and appeared on the way to his first victory since last August at Watkins Glen, N.Y., but Stewart and most of the other drivers who had been racing at the front of the pack did not have enough gas to get to the end.

On lap 271, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had been in the top 10 all day, started toward pit road and was hit from behind by Jamie McMurray, who then spun into David Ragan, bringing out a caution.

Stewart and the rest of the front-runners pitted under the yellow flag, while Busch and seven other drivers who had pitted more recently than the leaders, stayed on track.

The race restarted on lap 279, but there was another crash on lap 280, with Clint Bowyer and rookie Sam Hornish Jr. crashing, then Juan Montoya slamming into series points leader Kyle Busch under the ensuing caution flag.

The rain that had been threatening for much of the afternoon began falling moments later and, moments after the cars were red-flagged onto pit lane just before completing lap 285, NASCAR called the race, leaving Busch on top, ahead of Michael Waltrip, J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr., Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears, all of whom had stayed on track during the previous caution.

"It's just been the oddest year I've ever seen for this race team,'' a disappointed Stewart said. "It's just frustrating. There isn't anybody that's going to tell you any different than that. There's nothing you can do. If there was something we could do about it we'd change it.

"It's not because of lack of effort,'' added Stewart, who took two tires on his final pit stop and finished 13th. "I've got some of the best guys in the garage area and I've had 'em for 10 years. It's the worst string of bad luck we've ever seen, but there's nothing we can do about it.''

Busch, who has struggled this season, coming into the race 22nd in the points, wasn't about to apologize for winning via the backdoor.

"We tried to stretch our fuel as far as we could and it worked for us today,'' he said.

Crew chief Pat Tryson, who made the call to keep Busch on track, said, "We had a pretty good car all day. We topped off the fuel and were pretty close to make it to the end. We were hoping for some cautions, we got them and I told Kurt that we were going to stay on track and take a gamble. Today it worked and it got us a win.''

Busch's younger brother wound up 25th on Sunday, while series runner-up Jeff Burton, who finished 12th, climbed from 103 points behind to just 64 heading into next Saturday night's race at Daytona.

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 26 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 190/5 284 Running
2 36 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 170/0 284 Running
3 30 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV 165/0 284 Running
4 8 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 160/0 284 Running
5 11 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Hancock / Best Buy / Garmin 155/0 284 Running
6 6 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 150/0 284 Running
7 24 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet CARQUEST / Kellogg's 151/5 284 Running
8 12 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Ground 142/0 284 Running
9 23 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's 138/0 284 Running
10 2 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 134/0 284 Running
11 19 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 130/0 284 Running
12 31 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet LENOX Industrial Tools 127/0 284 Running
13 28 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 134/10 284 Running
14 3 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 126/5 284 Running
15 16 12 Ryan Newman Dodge Alltel 118/0 284 Running
16 40 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 115/0 284 Running
17 17 99 Carl Edwards Ford DISH Network / DishDVRs 112/0 284 Running
18 9 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT 109/0 284 Running
19 29 44 David Reutimann Toyota UPS 106/0 284 Running
20 43 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row
/ DenverMattress.com 108/5 284 Running
21 15 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 100/0 284 Running
22 18 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel's 97/0 284 Running
23 39 8 Aric Almirola Chevrolet U.S. Army 94/0 284 Running
24 5 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet National Guard / AMP Energy 96/5 284 Running
25 27 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Interstate Batteries 88/0 284 Running
26 22 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Camping World
/ RVs.com 90/5 284 Running
27 25 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet DEI / Principal Financial Group 82/0 283 Running
28 33 38 David Gilliland Ford FreeCreditRep
ort.com 79/0 283 Running
29 42 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet Sylvania / Menards 76/0 282 Running
30 14 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 73/0 282 Running
31 1 10 Patrick Carpentier * Dodge Berlin City Auto Group 75/5 282 Running
32 32 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Texaco / Havoline 67/0 282 Running
33 41 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 64/0 281 Running
34 4 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters 61/0 281 Running
35 34 45 Terry Labonte Dodge Victory Junction Gang 58/0 281 Running
36 21 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Ford. Drive one. 55/0 281 Running
37 37 70 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Atlas Copco 52/0 280 Running
38 7 40 Dario Franchitti * Dodge The Guitar Hero / Target 49/0 280 Running
39 20 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 46/0 280 Running
40 35 6 David Ragan Ford AAA Insurance / Red Sox 43/0 272 Accident
41 13 26 Jamie McMurray Ford IRWIN Industrial Tools 40/0 270 Accident
42 38 00 Michael McDowell * Toyota Champion Mortgage 37/0 209 Engine
43 10 84 A.J. Allmendinger Toyota Red Bull 34/0 202 Oil Line
* Denotes Rookie

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