Sunday, August 03, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Collision sends younger Busch back to garage

Crews scuffle after wreck in Busch Series race

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Kyle Busch 18-year-old takes blame for mishap that knocked him and competitor out of Busch Series race

CLERMONT, Ind. -- Kyle Busch helped Hendrick Motorsports teammate Brian Vickers celebrate his first NASCAR Busch Series victory Saturday night at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

But Busch didn't like doing it in his street clothes.

Busch, 18, qualified fourth and ran consistently in the top-10 before colliding with Ashton Lewis Jr. on the 127th lap in front of a near-capacity crowd estimated at 35,000.

The collision ended the night for both. Busch finished 33rd in his second race in the series and Lewis, who was running 14th, placed 34th in the 43-car field.

The first and only pit stop for the leaders occurred under a caution period that started on the 110th lap. Busch, a Las Vegas native living near Charlotte, N.C., was running seventh on lap 120, a lap after the restart.

He tried to pass Lewis by driving a low line into the first turn. When Lewis appeared to veer to the left, Busch braked and slid into Lewis.

"(Lewis) might have come down and when he did, I stomped the brake pedal and turned left. That got me loose," Busch said. "I chased it and then I hit him."

A brief scuffle developed between members of the two pit crews, and Lewis complained Busch was too aggressive considering he was not racing to improve his position.

"It was probably more my fault," Busch said. "It was just after a restart and I could have been trying a little bit less. But I was trying to get back up to the front and pass as many cars as I could.

"At this race we learned we shouldn't try that hard that soon after a restart.

"Everybody wanted to blame me for the deal in Turn 1. I'll take it. We'll go on. We had a decent run going, but we couldn't finish it up."

Busch will drive only five more Busch races this season to maintain his rookie status for 2004, when he's expected to drive in the series full-time.

• BRICKYARD QUALIFYING -- Kevin Harvick was the fastest among 11 drivers to beat the track record during Brickyard 400 qualifying Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Bill Elliott, who won last year's Brickyard, will start next to Harvick on the outside of the front row today.

"I felt like I was out of control, the track is so fast," Elliott said.

Harvick's best lap for Richard Childress Racing was at 184.343 mph and completed in 48.822 seconds. It shattered the previous record of 182.960 mph by Tony Stewart to win last year's pole. ...

Ward Burton qualified fourth for his best effort of the year. ... Las Vegas native Kurt Busch will start sixth. ...

Winston Cup points leader Matt Kenseth qualified 17th while three-time race winner Jeff Gordon was 19th. ...

Casey Mears, a rookie, is the third member of his family to race at Indy. His father, Roger, and his uncle, Rick, drove in the Indianapolis 500.