SPARTA, Ky. — Kyle Busch figured the best way to beat the traffic on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.
He simply stayed out of it.
Busch rolled to victory in the inaugural Sprint Cup race at the 1 1/2-mile oval, pulling away from Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go to collect his third victory of the season and jump into the points lead with two months to go before NASCAR’s Chase for the championship begins.
David Reutimann slipped past Johnson to finish second. Ryan Newman was fourth, followed by Edwards and Matt Kenseth.
“This is cool, man,” Busch said. “This is right up there with the best of them.”
For now anyway. The way Busch is surging, better days almost certainly are ahead.
Track officials hope they can say the same for their venue, which experienced some ugly growing pains during its first step into the spotlight. A massive traffic jam made the trip in a tortuous test of patience.
Even the drivers weren’t immune. Denny Hamlin nearly missed the driver’s meeting while getting stuck in the snarl.
Not exactly the kind of Cup debut Speedway Motorsports Inc. owner Bruton Smith was hoping for when he successfully lobbied NASCAR officials to let him move a date from Atlanta Motor Speedway to the quirky oval in the northern Kentucky hills.
“It was one of those things,” said Hamlin, who finished 11th after starting from the back of the 43-car field. “You’ve got a lot of fans that want to watch the first race. You can’t do anything about a two-lane road.”
And the drivers can’t seem to do anything about Busch, who moved into the points lead as the season reached its halfway point. He leads Carl Edwards by four points heading into next week’s race at New Hampshire.
Ho-hum night for Regan
How Regan Smith, driving for Denver’s Furniture Row team, fared Saturday in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway:
He never got untracked during the Kentucky track’s Cup debut, finishing 17th. Smith was running in the 15th to 20th positions for most of the race.
