Kurt Busch won Saturday’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway in an overtime finish, beating his brother Kyle Busch to the checkered flag after they made contact and both fishtailed exiting Turn 4.
It is Kurt Busch’s first win of the season and his first win with Chip Ganassi Racing, which snapped a 64-race winless streak. It is also Chevrolet’s first win at Kentucky Speedway in nine attempts.
The final restart came on Lap 268 with Kurt Busch in the second row on the outside behind race leader Joey Logano.
But with drafting help from his teammate Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch was able to sweep to the outside of Logano and challenge Kyle Busch over the final two laps.
“Hell yeah! Hell yeah!” Kurt Busch yelled to fans on the frontstretch before speaking to NBCSN at the start-finish line. “You know, racing your little brother every week and watching him win a lot. I’m proud of him, but he gave me a little bit of room on that outside. He could have clobbered us against the wall, and third place probably would have got it. What an awesome run.”
The victory came a week after Busch missed out on a trip to victory lane at Daytona International Speedway. The No. 1 team elected to pit from the lead under caution just before a lightning strike halted the race, which was called official more than two hours later without restarting.
“Well, we got a yellow at the end that put us back in position,” Kurt Busch said. “Whatever last week was, it’s this week right now, and we’ve got the trophy.”
It is the third time the Busch brothers have finished first and second in a Cup race (Kyle Busch won the first two). His younger brother finished second after leading 72 laps.
“I’m glad it was a thriller,” Kyle Busch told NBCSN. “Unfortunately we were on the wrong end of the deal …
“It’s obviously cool to put on great races and great finishes and been a part of a lot of them and none with my brother like that, so that was a first. You know, no hard feelings, and we move on.”
The top five was completed by Erik Jones, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin.
The overtime restart was set up by a Bubba Wallace spin with six laps left in the scheduled distance.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Kurt Busch (first stage win of the season)
STAGE 2 WINNER: Kyle Busch
Click here for results and point standings
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Denny Hamlin earned his second top five in the last 10 races … Clint Bowyer finished sixth after placing 34th or worse in three of the previous four races … pole-sitter Daniel Suarez finished eighth, fighting back from going multiple laps down after a speeding penalty in the middle of the race.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Jimmie Johnson got loose and wrecked in Turn 2 on Lap 178 while running seventh. He finished 30th …. Austin Dillon lost a gear on the Stage 2 restart and went to the garage. He finished 35th.
NOTABLE: Chip Ganassi Racing is only the fifth team to win a Cup race this season (joining Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske, Hendrick Motorsports and Spire Motorsports). It is the fourth team to win at Kentucky … Crew chief Matt McCall earned his first Cup win in 164 starts.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: “Today things went right, and my little brother gave me just enough room. It was like, ‘You going to lift? I ain’t going to lift. You going to lift? I ain’t going to lift.’ And we had a duel. We had a duel going down through (Turns) 3 and 4, and I didn’t know who was going to come out on top.” – Kurt Busch
WHAT’S NEXT: Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway at 3 p.m. ET on July 21 (NBCSN).
