Sweet Victory for Kyle Busch at Talladega

TALLADEGA, AL (April 27, 2008) – Kyle Busch notched another win on his racing resume Sunday at Talladega. After battling through adversity in the middle part of the race, Busch drove his No. 18 M&M’S® Camry to the front at the end and pulled out his first superspeedway victory in the Aaron’s 499. He received help from a couple of the most talented race car drivers in the world on his way to the front, and was excited to express his thanks and appreciation for a hard-fought win.

“First Jeff Gordon and then Juan (Pablo) Montoya – those guys behind me were pretty awesome in helping push us and we just kept blocking them like we needed to,” Busch said after the win. “This M&M’S Toyota, this thing was strong. It wasn’t as strong as we would have liked. I didn’t think it was as good as the 20 (Tony Stewart) was today, but this Toyota has enough horsepower in it to power us to the win. I can’t say enough about these guys at Joe Gibbs Racing and all of these M&M’S boys. We really want to thank all of these fans here in Talladega as well for being here and supporting NASCAR racing. Glad we were able to bring one home here today.”

Kyle began the day from the fifth spot on the inside of row three. As soon as the green flag dropped, he was able to jump up a few spots and link up with his teammate, Tony Stewart. The two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers raced together for several laps at the front of the pack before being joined by their third teammate, Denny Hamlin. From there, Busch’s day lost some of its luster, as he ran into a few problems.

First, he got hung out on the outside of a three-wide pack coming onto pit road during a green-flag stop, which forced him to miss his pit stall and come back down pit road again the following lap. From there, he lost the lead draft and eventually fell off the lead lap. But through patience and perseverance, he earned his way back onto the lead lap after the halfway point in the race and back in contention.

Being back on the lead lap with more than 60 laps to go, Busch still had a mountain to climb on his way to victory. Those final laps saw Busch steadily work through three-wide racing and carefully inch through more than 30 positions. With help from an old teammate (Jeff Gordon) and a new friend (Juan Pablo Montoya), Busch found himself at the front of the pack. As the field took the white flag, a wreck on the front stretch collected several cars and brought out the yellow flag, consequently ending the race under caution and giving Busch one sweet victory.

“We got a lap down there at the beginning and were able to come back from that and get our track position back,” Busch explained. “This Toyota Camry was just awesome. With M&M’S being on board – all these guys back here from Joe Gibbs Racing – it's just a phenomenal day for us. I had a blast man!”

Today’s win was the second for Busch this season but the first of his career at a superspeedway. Coincidentally, it was also his first top-10 in seven races at Talladega. He now has two wins and six top 10 finishes in 2008 and trails Jeff Burton by only 22 points now in the Sprint Cup Series driver standings.

Denny Hamlin drove an impressive race in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and wound up with a third-place finish. After leading the most laps of the day and surviving a cut tire, Tony Stewart was caught up in a wreck on lap 175 that ended his day early. He finished 38th.

As noted previously, Juan Pablo Montoya stayed glued to the rear bumper of Kyle Busch to finish second behind the 22-year-old winner. Denny Hamlin finished in third, while David Ragan and Brian Vickers rounded out the top five.

Kyle Busch will look for his third victory of the season at Richmond International Raceway next Saturday, May 3. It will also be the first race of the season that his No. 18 Toyota Camry will carry the familiar and popular Pedigree colors. Live television coverage of the race can be seen on the FOX television network at 7:00pm EDT. Radio coverage can be heard on the Motor Racing Network (MRN).