DARLINGTON, S.C. — The crowd booed him. He called his car pathetic. His crew missed a lug nut, and he couldn’t stay off Darlington Raceway’s wall.
Despite it all, Kyle Busch found Victory Lane once again.
One of NASCAR’s least popular drivers raced to his third Sprint Cup Series victory of the season Saturday night, winning a battle of attrition at the track “Too Tough to Tame.”
“How many times did I hit the wall? I don’t know, one, two, three, four, probably five or six,” Busch said. “I’ve got to thank my team, they build them as strong as they can for me, ’cause I like to knock the walls down with them.”
Busch’s victory hardly thrilled the crowd, which viciously booed him in prerace introductions and hadn’t softened by the time he took the checkered flag. Already loathed by many, he enraged Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s massive fan base by wrecking him as they raced for the win last week in Richmond.
It created a frenzy of hatred toward Busch, but the 23-year-old tuned it out and focused on what he does best: winning races.
The win was his eighth of the season spanning NASCAR’s top three series, and he has won most of them in very convincing fashion.
This one was no different, as Busch led a race-high 169 of the 367 laps in a Toyota he described early in the race as the “most pathetic” he’d ever driven.
He also overcame every speed bump thrown his way to become the youngest winner on NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway.
Dixon on Indy 500 pole
INDIANAPOLIS — Strategy was almost as important as speed as Scott Dixon won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 with a big gamble by his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team.
Dixon and teammate Dan Wheldon, who took the second spot, both took advantage of Indy’s unique qualifying format, which allows each entry up to three tries on each of the four days of time trials.
Dixon, who has three pole positions in five tries in the IRL IndyCar Series this season, got the biggest benefit of the team strategy, canceling out a four-lap average of 225.178 mph earlier in the day and making it pay off with four laps at 226.366 that held up for Ganassi’s third Indy pole.
Massa gains F1 pole
ISTANBUL, Turkey — Ferrari’s Felipe Massa won the pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix for the third straight year.
Today’s race
FORMULA ONE
Turkish Grand Prix
Site:Istanbul
TV: Speed Channel, 6 a.m.
Track: Istanbul Park (road course, 3.342 miles, 14 turns).
Race distance: 193.836 miles, 58 laps.
Last race: World champion Kimi Raikkonen moved Ferrari clear atop the drivers’ and the constructors’ standings on April 27 with his second Spanish Grand Prix win in four years. Raikkonen’s 17th career victory moved him nine points clear of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton while Ferrari took a 12-point lead in the team standings.
Last year: Felipe Massa won his second consecutive Turkish Grand Prix, beating teammate Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso of McLaren was third. Hamilton had been in third place but dropped to fifth after shredding a tire on the 43rd lap.
Fast facts: The head of Japanese Formula One team Super Aguri said Tuesday his team will withdraw from the series due to financial difficulties. Team president Aguri Suzuki said “a breach of contract” by a promised partner, SS United Oil & Gas Co., resulted in the loss of financial backing. . . . McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen could return this weekend after being hospitalized following a crash at the Spanish Grand Prix. While traveling at 150 mph, his car went off the track and slammed into the protective wall at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Next race: Monaco Grand Prix, May 25, Monte Carlo
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