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SceneDaily.com
SceneDaily.com
07/03/2009
Daytona Beach, FL
Kyle Busch drives Daytona International Speedway during a practice session. (PHOTO: LAT Photographic)
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Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch has experienced his share of both glory and heartache at Daytona International Speedway during the last couple of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series seasons.
Kyle Busch Stats
So which will Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 hold for the 24-year-old driver?
Busch, the defending race winner, appeared headed for a possible win in this year’s Daytona 500 – until he found trouble.
Running in the lead pack after leading 88 laps, Busch seemingly had the car to beat before being eliminated in a multicar crash triggered when Dale Earnhardt Jr. slid up into Brian Vickers on the backstretch.
Instead of hoisting his first Daytona 500 trophy, Busch finished 41st and left empty-handed in his fifth attempt at winning NASCAR’s biggest race.
It was the ultimate antithesis to his emotions from last July, when Busch prevailed in a late-race side-by-side battle for the lead with Carl Edwards to score his first triumph at the 2.5-mile track.
As much as Busch remembers his Daytona victory last summer, he also remembers February’s disappointment – and a similar feeling after the 2008 Daytona 500, a race in which he led 86 laps and finished fourth.
“I felt like we had the best car here actually at the 500 here last year as well, too,” Busch said. "We had a great race car then. Myself and [Tony] Stewart just got misaligned there at the end of the race and gave the race to the Penske [Racing] cars. Then last July, we won that race. This spring we were really good. I felt like way better than the year before.
“It was just frustrating to lose that race the way we did.”
