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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Kurt Busch Fights For Third Place
Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon engaged in some fierce battles during the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted June 28, 2009   Loudon, NH
Kurt Busch, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Dodge, prepares to drive prior to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

At the end of the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kurt Busch was all smiles, despite not being able to repeat as race winner.

Busch finished a respectable third behind Joey Logano and Jeff Gordon in a race that was rain-shortened for the second year in a row. What put a smile on Busch’s face, though, was not his finishing position but the fact that he and Gordon raced each other hard and clean pretty much all race long, just like you’d expect from two former NASCAR Sprint Cup champions.

Gordon and Busch went at hammer-and-tongs literally from the drop of the green flag to start the race and when the final caution flag came out to end it, Busch’s Penske Championship Racing Dodge Charger was maybe half a fender behind Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS.

In between, it seemed like every restart the two were locked in mortal combat for the lead, and it clearly was something that Busch enjoyed, despite the ferocity or more likely, because of it. NASCAR’s new policy of double-wide restarts made for some compelling battles between Busch and Gordon all afternoon.

“The track here at Loudon has always been slick on restarts,” said Busch. “And with double file restarts, you have to keep in the back of your mind, even on Saturday's practice, you have to have a car good on a long run, but now you're going to have all these restarts, you might want to focus a little bit on short runs, as well. It's a tough balance, and this track really challenged the double file restarts.”

Late in the race, with rain on the way, Busch got even more aggressive than he had been. “I actually had raindrops on my windshield, and so I pushed the go button, over stepped the line, rubbed Jeff a little bit and knew the boundary line that I crossed,” Busch said, acknowledging he’d perhaps been a tad irrationally exuberant. “But yet if I was on the outside and he was on the inside restarting, he probably would have slid up into us. It's just a slick track.”

Gordon admitted to getting crowded, but indicated he had no real hard feelings. “The one time — I don't know if he just slipped or what — but (he) pushed me pretty wide, and it almost got a little ugly,” Gordon said. “At that point, you know that whoever gets out front seems to have a huge advantage, and that's why I was fighting as hard as I was on the inside, and why he was fighting as hard as he was on the inside.”

After all of the punching and counterpunching was done on the track, Gordon was second, Busch third in the final rundown. That was good enough to keep Busch in fourth place in the Sprint Cup point standings behind Tony Stewart, Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

“Overall, last year, to drive into victory lane and do it in a rain-shortened race and today to have it where we were fast enough to win and not get the win, you know, that's how this sport evens itself out,” said Busch. “You have your good and your bad luck, and overall it was a great run for the Miller Lite Dodge.”

Results: LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at N. H. Motor Speedway

SPRINT CUP SERIES DRIVER POINT STANDINGS

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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