Kyle Busch's hopes take hit after bump by Earnhardt
01.10.2007 03:00
Sport and Travel
- Source: USA Today
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Busch's problems started well before the heavy weather hit Sunday's LifeLock 400. Just 28 laps into the race, he spun and nosed into the wall after a bump from behind by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt is jumping from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Hendrick Motorsports next year, essentially squeezing Busch out of the elite Hendrick lineup. Busch will move to Joe Gibbs Racing. "It was a pretty stupid move on his part," said Busch, who started the race in fourth place in NASCAR's Chase for the Nextel Cup standings. "I'm sure these guys that he's going to be working with next year don't really appreciate this because they've got a championship they can win this year and (with Earnhardt not qualified for the Chase) he doesn't. I don't know what he was thinking, really." Busch said he was leaving a lane for Earnhardt to pass outside, but it was higher than the one Earnhardt anticipated. "He just moved up, and I got into him," Earnhardt said. "I should have been able to get out of (the way of) the car. … It was my fault. "That's the last guy I want to run into, the last team I want to put out," he said. Dream denied: It was the moment — first to cross the finish line at Kansas Speedway — of Clint Bowyer's dreams. And then, it wasn't. He didn't get the checkered flag. In his second race on his home track, some 90 miles north of his hometown of Emporia, Kan., Bowyer steered his No. 07 Chevrolet across the line as declared winner Greg Biffle was being pushed from the infield grass to victory lane. Bowyer and other drivers thought Biffle was out of gas; Biffle said he pulled off after officials froze the finish with a yellow flag. "It didn't look right," said Bowyer, who started Sunday's race 10th. "I don't know what the rule is. It is just weird. Very weird."
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