Kurt Busch wins at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas – Jimmie Johnson’s drive to history took a hard hit against a wall, and Kyle Busch ran out of gas trying to complete an unprecedented NASCAR trifecta.

Kurt Busch drove to Victory Lane at Texas after his younger brother ran out of fuel with 2½ laps left Sunday, finishing 129 laps ahead of the rebuilt car driven by Johnson, who saw his points lead slashed from 184 to 73 over Hendrick teammate Mark Martin with two races left.

“It was definitely not the day we wanted,” Johnson said. “It’s not as bad as it could have been. At one point I was told to hop out of car and I was done. ... It’s still a big ouch.”

Johnson, the series points leader trying to become the first Sprint Cup driver to win four consecutive season championships, wrecked on the third lap when he was knocked into the wall by Sam Hornish. Johnson finished 38th after his crew needed more than an hour to repair his No. 48 Chevrolet.

“I’m still in great position,” Johnson said. “We’re going to dust ourselves off. There’s not much we can do. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Coming out of Turn 2 on the third lap, Hornish got loose after being tapped by David Reutimann. Hornish made contact with Johnson, who scraped the outside wall. It looked as if Johnson might save his car before he was hit again by Hornish, then slammed into the inside wall.

Kurt Busch got his second win of the season in the
No. 2 Dodge with lame duck
crew chief Pat Tryson, who is leaving at the end of the season to join Michael Waltrip Racing.

Busch’s 20th career victory came with an average speed of 147.137 mph and by a nearly 26-second margin over second-place Denny Hamlin. Matt Kenseth was third.

Kyle Busch, who won the Nationwide and Camping World Truck races at Texas, was trying to become the first driver to win in all three of
NASCAR’s national series on the same weekend. He led 232 laps and still was ahead when his No. 18 Toyota slowed on the backstretch on lap 332.