Busch breaks through

LOUDON, N.H. -- Kurt Busch had strategy and luck on his side. Tony Stewart had neither.

That’s how Busch wound up ending his 29-race winless string Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301, while Stewart added another disheartening loss to a winless string that has reached 31 races.

“Sometimes you just don’t win them the right way,” said Busch, who drives for Penske Racing. “I think we can honestly say that, but we had a lot of work and a lot of effort put in today and we’ll take it.”

Busch’s victory came on a day when two-time Cup champion Stewart dominated, leading 132 of 284 laps, only to experience again the hard luck that has dogged him all season.

Busch hasn’t had much to celebrate this season, either.

Since finishing second to teammate Ryan Newman in the season-opening Daytona 500, the 2004 Cup champion had finished in the top 10 only once and went into this event 22nd in the points standings. But Sunday turned out to be his day, thanks to crew chief Pat Tryson’s decision to keep the No. 2 Dodge on the track when Stewart and several other lead cars pitted during a late caution period.

When rain ended the race 17 laps short, with the field under a red flag on pit road, Busch had his 18th career victory and Stewart was an unhappy 13th.

“I’ve been on the flip side of it plenty of times,” Busch said. “There’s those times when you just grit your teeth and go, ‘What could we have done different? Why did it happen this way?’ So it isn’t pretty, but we’ll take it.

“That’s the beauty of Sprint Cup racing: The competition level is always at its best. Sometimes the guys that have fast race cars don’t win because they got out-dueled in the pits with pit strategy. You take them when you can get them because you get burned plenty of times the other way.”

Runner-up Michael Waltrip, who had not finished better than 23rd this season, used the same strategy as Busch. The two-time Daytona 500 winner said he was hoping the race would go to the end because he believed he had a faster car than Busch, who believed he could hold the top spot.

“I felt like it was going to be a great duel down to the end with everybody on old tires; everybody would have been slipping and sliding,” Busch said. “I felt we had track position and I felt like my fire and desire were going to overcome anything today to get into Victory Lane.

“Once I saw that we were leading and we were out in front with 26 [laps] to go, that good old Kurt Busch jumped up on the wheel and I told myself, ‘Don’t let your team down. This is what you live for. This is what you race for.’ ”

Series points leader Kyle Busch, Kurt’s brother, wound up 25th.

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Standings

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings:

*--* Driver Points Behind 1. Kyle Busch 2,496 -- 2. Jeff Burton 2,432 64 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2,352 144 4. Carl Edwards 2,262 234 5. Jimmie Johnson 2,220 276 6. Jeff Gordon 2,171 325 7. Denny Hamlin 2,150 346 8. Greg Biffle 2,119 377 9. Tony Stewart 2,042 454 10. Kasey Kahne 2,031 465 11. Clint Bowyer 2,021 475 12. Kevin Harvick 2,016 480 *--*