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ALL-STAR: This Time, Busch Didn’t Have Restart Flair
Gibbs driver says, ‘We flat-out got beat.’…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted May 21, 2011   Concord, NC
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The closing segment of the Sprint All-Star Race Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway presented a perfect landscape for Kyle Busch.

Busch was alongside leader Carl Edwards for the final restart leading into the 10-lap concluding segment of the race. Busch is known as one of the best drivers – certainly currently and perhaps in history – on restarts. He tends to leap out front from the green, and, in a short dash to the finish should be in great shape.

It didn’t work that way for Busch Saturday, however, as Edwards took over his role as a restart expert, led the final 10 laps of the race and left for Sunday’s Nationwide Series race in Iowa with $1.2 million he didn’t have Saturday morning.

Edwards jumped to a quick lead on the final restart, putting 10 car lengths between his Ford and Busch’s Toyota. He led comfortably through the closing laps. Busch made some gains with three laps to go but couldn’t close within striking distance.

“[Team members] gave me a great piece off the truck,” Busch said. “I thought we had a winning car. We got beat tonight on speed, and, unfortunately, we were second best.”

Busch said Edwards, a winner in the All-Star event for the first time, could drive his car “five car lengths further than I could drive into turn three. It stuck. His car would turn and roll the bottom. He slid up off the bottom maybe a foot.

“If I had done that, it would have been a lot more than a foot. It would have been a few lanes. His car just had a lot of front grip in it tonight. They did a good job with it.”

Busch said Edwards’ burst at the restart surprised him.

“He took off so far, it was like, damn, ain’t no way I’m going to be able to run him back down in this period of time,” Busch said. “I caught him on one lap. I think I was three-10ths faster or something like that. I was like, if I can keep that spread going, it would be pretty good. I don’t know if he was relaxing for a lap or so or what.

“Tonight we flat-out got beat. There’s nothing to hang our heads about. There’s nothing to be frustrated on tonight. We just didn’t quite have enough when we needed it.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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