Busch picks up win in the West

Monday, April 28, 2003 | 9:47 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. -- NASCAR team owner Jack Roush took a risk when he put 22-year-old Kurt Busch in a Winston Cup car at the end of the 2000 season after only one year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

After 88 races, Roush's gamble has paid off in spades.

Busch, now 24, outdueled veteran drivers Bobby Labonte and Rusty Wallace in the closing laps and won Sunday's Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.

It was the sixth career Winston Cup victory for Busch, a Las Vegas native, and marked his fifth win in the past 15 races.

"There are a lot of good times ahead of us and I just can't wait to continue moving forward and producing results like that," Busch said.

"This was just a perfect overall day. We didn't lead a lot of laps (but) we led when we needed to."

Busch led only 27 of the 250 laps on the 2-mile oval -- including the final dozen after slipping past Labonte and Wallace following a late-race restart.

Rookie Jamie McMurray held the point on the restart with 13 laps remaining but Busch emerged with the lead following a three-wide battle with Wallace and Labonte on lap 239. McMurray fell back to fourth and Busch pulled away as Labonte and Wallace battled for second.

Busch posted a 2.294-second victory over Labonte, Wallace was third and Bill Elliott slipped by McMurray for fourth. Busch became the first two-time winner this year, ending a streak of nine different race winners to start the season.

"I never saw (Busch) coming at all," said Wallace, who briefly took the lead from McMurray on lap 238. "When we went down into turn three ... somebody pushed me right through there.

"I took the lead going into three and said 'Man, I'm finally going to win a race.' I went into turn four and I still didn't think (Busch) was there. I came off turn four and it was like 'Where the hell did he come from?' "

In reality, Busch was in the hunt from the beginning of the race. After starting 16th, he moved up six spots on the first lap and was in the top five by lap 16. He remained among the top 10 the entire race.

"This car was freshly rebuilt after (the) Las Vegas (race)," Busch said of his No. 97 Ford Taurus. "I thought we had great cars when we showed up and we just never produced results at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Texas.

"We built this car special for this racetrack -- something a little different and something, I think, that gets us back to where we were, somewhat, last year because last year our cars were so good."

Busch concluded the 2002 season by winning three of the final five races.

"I'm just real proud that we can sit down and look at our poor efforts and produce such a great result," he said.

For Busch, Sunday's victory was the next best thing to winning at his home track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"You could say that," said Busch, who finished second in this race a year ago. "We've always enjoyed coming out to the West Coast to race because of that fan base we have here and the comfort of just being in this region.

"It does feel good to get back into victory lane here after losing last year and after the loss we had at Vegas."

Busch finished 38th last month at LVMS after getting caught up in a wreck midway through the race.

Sunday's race was slowed by eight caution periods for 34 laps. Busch averaged 140.111 mph in winning the race -- well off the event record of 155.012 mph, set by Jeff Gordon in 1997.

There were 19 lead changes among nine drivers. Reigning Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart led a race-high 100 laps but dropped out after 128 laps with a blown engine.

Pole-sitter Steve Park was involved in an accident with Ryan Newman on the opening lap. He eventually got back into the race, completed 138 of 250 laps and finished 40th."