Busch runs best race

Monday, April 2, 2001 | 10:31 a.m.

Kurt Busch overcame a spin early in the race and finished a career-best fourth place in Sunday's Harrah's 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Busch narrowly avoided a crash early in the race when Michael Waltrip spun in front of him. The maneuver forced Busch to spin through the infield grass at the 1.5-mile superspeedway, but the 22-year-old Las Vegas native recovered and got back on the lead lap.

Busch was running in or near the top 10 for much of the latter portion of the race and was among six cars challenging for the win during the final 18 laps. He was running third with 10 laps to go when he unsuccessfully attempted to pass Jeff Gordon and slid back to sixth place.

In the closing laps, Busch battled back up to fifth and passed Gordon with two laps remaining. He held off Gordon and a hard-charging Dave Blaney for fourth place.

"That was too much fun," Busch said. "I've got to go race again. That's what I'm used to -- running up front and racing the guys, racing clean, making pit stops.

"We just needed to keep digging after we went through the grass. Once we got through that I knew we were going to be all right."

"I saw Blaney coming in the mirror and he was really hauling. I didn't want to stand in the way of his first victory, but we had our opportunity arise today. I don't know what happened to Gordon at the end, but it was great to finally finish as the first rookie."

Besides scoring his first top-five finish in the Winston Cup Series, Busch was the highest finishing rookie in the race -- facts not lost on team owner Jack Roush.

"It was a great beginning and first outing for Kurt Busch and (new crew chief) Ben Leslie," Roush said. "Kurt qualified well (16th) and they picked and pecked at the car without making big changes throughout the race and they did it smart.

"He went after it and got everything he could. He's as mature as any 22-year-old you ever saw. He did a nice job."