Victory provides emotional end to Busch’s week

Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 | 9:40 a.m.

Kurt Busch put a triumphant cap on the most turbulent week in his brief NASCAR Winston Cup career by winning Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch, a 25-year-old Las Vegas native, had been caught up in a firestorm of media attention and hostile fan reaction since the previous Sunday as the result of an on-track incident with rival Jimmy Spencer and a post-race altercation in which Spencer punched Busch as he sat in his car following the race at Michigan International Speedway.

"I can't give you one word that describes the emotions and the feelings that have gone through me all this week and (Saturday) night," Busch said after leading the final 121 laps and posting his fourth win of the season. "For us to come away with a win like this, it's very satisfying to put a lot of this behind us and to move forward.

"The way the whole team stood up this weekend and carried me -- when it kept getting worse and worse, they kept giving me more and more support. They made the light at the end of the tunnel a bit brighter for me just so that I could see forward and see through this."

During pre-race introductions, Busch was showered with boos and catcalls from the crowd of more than 160,000 at Bristol. During his victory lane celebration, he again was greeted with boos as he tried to apologize for an incident during the race in which he spun out Sterling Marlin.

"That's part of what's going to happen with ... any type of confrontation on the racetrack," Busch said of the fan reaction. "That's what makes this sport go around.

"It's so challenging to try to put all of that behind you, but that's what I'm paid to do and that's what I love to do is go out and race these cars and focus lap after lap on what I love to do. The rest of it come with it so we have to embrace it with dignity and pride."

Busch, who scored his eighth career Winston Cup victory and moved from ninth to sixth in Winston Cup points, was not the only driver with ties to Southern Nevada who enjoyed a successful weekend.

The Las Vegas-based Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning endurance racing team earned its first American Le Mans Series GT class win Sunday at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

Driver Craig Stanton and Johnny Mowlem drove the Westward Ho Casino-sponsored Porsche 911 GT3 RS to a one-lap victory over the second-place team of Kevin Buckler and Cort Wagner of The Racers Group.

The car is owned by Las Vegas businessman Michael Petersen and is prepared by longtime local racer Dale White. Peterson and White teamed with ALMS rival Alex Job Racing to win the GT class at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier this summer.

"It means a lot because we've been together for such a long time," Petersen said of the victory. "It's good to bounce back from what we consider a sub-par performance (a fifth in class) at Sonoma. We had hoped to carry the momentum from the Le Mans win into the ALMS but it didn't happen. Maybe now we have recaptured it and we can carry it on to (the next race)."

In the CART Champ Car World Series, Las Vegas residents Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani finished third and fourth in the Molson Indy Montreal at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Las Vegan Paul Tracy finished sixth and increased his lead in the series points standings to 28 over Bruno Junqueira. Jimmy Vasser of Las Vegas experienced a gearbox failure late in the race and took 16th. Michel Jourdain Jr. of Mexico led the final 10 laps and scored his second victory of the season.

In the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series, part-time Henderson resident Al Unser Jr. recorded his ninth top-10 finish of the season, a sixth-place finish in the Firestone Indy 225 at Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway, and remained sixth in the series points standings.

Helio Castroneves led the final 173 laps and won for the second time in three races and took over the lead in the drivers' standings. "