Kurt Busch wins at Texas, Johnson crashes early

By Sports Network

Kurt Busch conserved enough fuel to win Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, while Jimmie Johnson crashed in the opening laps and saw his points lead drastically reduced with just two races remaining in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship.

Busch inherited the lead when his younger brother, Kyle, ran out of fuel with less than three laps remaining. Both drivers last pitted with under 65 laps remaining.

"I knew what we had for fuel mileage," said Kurt Busch, who scored his second victory of the season and the 20th of his Sprint Cup Series career. "I was confident in my guys' numbers. They gave me what I needed to win today. The car was fast, and we were playing cat-and-mouse with Kyle on restarts. That was the first true time that Kyle and I raced each other hard for a victory like this."

Busch's last win came in March at Atlanta, a 1 1/2-mile track similar to Texas.

Kyle Busch led 232 of 334 laps, but wound up 11th after coasting into the pits for fuel. Busch was attempting to become the first driver to win all three of NASCAR's national touring series races on the same weekend. He won Friday's Camping World Truck Series race and Saturday's Nationwide Series event here.

"For us to come away and knock [Kyle] off his sweep he was trying to go for was bittersweet," Kurt Busch said. "I was rooting for him, but at the same time, this one is for us."

With the victory, Busch made contest winner Michael McGee $1 million happier. McGee randomly selected Busch as the one Chase driver who would win the 500- mile event at Texas in a promotional campaign by race-title sponsor Dickies.

While Busch celebrated with a backwards victory lap with the checkered flag in hand, Johnson's day at Texas turned out to be disastrous after his wreck resulted in a 38th-place finish and his points lead trimmed from 184 points to 73 over Mark Martin, who finished fourth.

"It's still a respectable lead," Johnson said. "I hated that we gave up all these points tonight."

Johnson spent one hour and eight minutes behind the wall for repairs after smacking the inside retaining wall along the backstretch on the third lap. David Reutimann made slight contact with Sam Hornish Jr., and Hornish then bumped Johnson, sending him into the wall.

Crew members from Johnson's team replaced both the front and rear suspension, as well as the drive shaft and water cooling system. He finished the race 129 laps behind.

"The guys did a great job to get this car back on the track and get a couple more spots, and we'll go to Phoenix and race," Johnson added.

Denny Hamlin finished second, and Matt Kenseth took the third spot. Kevin Harvick completed the top-five.

Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and A.J. Allmendinger were sixth through 10th, respectively.

Jeff Gordon, the pole-sitter, moved within 112 points of Johnson after finishing 13th.

Gordon survived an incident on lap 175 when Juan Pablo Montoya got loose and bumped Carl Edwards from behind, sending Edwards into the outside wall. Gordon spun while trying to avoid the accident.

Montoya and Edwards suffered heavy damage to their cars, while Gordon managed not to hit anything.

"I think Carl was really close to me, and he drove right beside me and it got me loose and I lost it," said Montoya, who finished 37th.

Montoya fell two positions in the Chase to sixth (-236). Edwards, who has yet to win a Cup race this year, ended up 39th.

"I might win the race home," said Edwards, who won last year's fall race here. "It's just racing, and that's how it goes."