Busch edges Benson to win Old Dominion 500

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- In winning Sunday's Old Dominion 500 on the quirky confines of Martinsville Speedway, Kurt Busch effectively disproved the notion that qualifying trouble spells doom at the half-mile bullring on race day.

	Credit: Autostock

Busch overcame a dismal qualifying effort and an early-race miscue to earn his second career victory, both of which have come on short tracks this season. Busch also won the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

By winning from the 36th starting position, Busch replaces Lee Petty as the driver farthest back in the field to win in Martinsville history. Petty won from the 24th starting position in 1959.

"That's always good to set a milestone," said Busch, 22, who became the 11th different winner in the past 11 races at Martinsville. "I don't think you're ever good at Martinsville, you just try and try and try. Who knew we'd have two wins at a short track. We thought we'd do better at 1 1/2 miles."

Busch spun exiting Turn 4 on lap 180 of 500, the result of a tap from Jeff Gordon. That cost him several crucial positions on the track.

But perfect pit strategy and masterful maneuvering lifted him back into contention and, after holding off a relentless charge from Johnny Benson, on to Victory Lane.

The most crucial stop for the No. 97 crew came on lap 343, after Bill Elliott spun in Turn 4 to bring out the day's 12th caution.

Busch entered the pits in ninth position, but following the stop, he re-entered the event third in the running order behind Ricky Craven and Benson. Craven held the point until lap 374, when Benson passed him for the lead.

Busch quickly moved past Craven, as well, and into second position. He then set his sites on the lead. Busch nabbed the top spot from Benson on lap 389 and never relinquished it, despite a wild battle over the final 10 laps.

Benson was all over Busch's rear bumper as the laps wound down, and even tried to bump him, but couldn't make the crucial pass.

"I did everything I could to get around Kurt, even bumped him. Just couldn't do anything with it," said Benson, whose runner-up effort marks a career high. "I think if I was in front of him we'd have been a little better, but with him up front he was pretty good, too. I didn't want to get him out of shape."

Lucky for Busch, who moved Benson out of the way en route to his first career win back in April.

	Johnny Benson, working on Jeff Green, finished a strong second. Credit: Autostock

"He raced me great. I raced him great," Busch said. "I bumped him at Bristol to get in the lead. It was clean running today. I know how hungry he is, but we're starving too. We needed to get this second win."

Benson has yet to win in 224 career starts, but has finished second three times. Sunday's effort marks his best finish since the 2000 season.

"I felt like the bottom groove was hurting the tires," Benson said. "I felt like Kurt running down low might hurt his tires. Looked like it did, but lapped traffic was there. That's tough for him and me. All you can do is follow at that point."

Ricky Rudd followed Benson across the start/finish line in third position, a stellar finish considering he lost two laps early in the event with tire trouble.

OLD DOMINION 500 Kurt Busch celebrates his second Winston Cup victory. Play video Jeff Gordon makes contact with the outside wall. Play video Johnny Benson finishes second at Martinsville. Play video  •  Results  •  Standings

"We got two laps down early, I guess Matt Kenseth and I got together," Rudd said. "It wasn't intentional, but that cut a left-front tire down and we weren't five laps into the race.

"We shouldn't have been running that hard, I guess, but we had to make those two laps up. And then we kept getting boxed in in our pits and had to come from the back. We had one of the fastest cars out here and we were lucky to get back to third."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who came home a Martinsville career-high fourth, said that the usual short track beating and banging was intensified even more Sunday.

"It was a grind all day, man," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We was tearing the sides off our cars every lap. That was a lot of fun. Congratulations to Kurt, he drove a good race.

"Everybody drove a good race. The only way to get by a guy was to knock the side off his car. It was kind of an understanding."

	Robby Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. trade paint. Credit: Autostock

Ward Burton, who led a race-high 145 laps, finished fifth. Jimmie Johnson was sixth, after a 35th-place effort here in the spring. Ricky Craven, last year's winner in this event, finished seventh, followed by Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin.

Tony Stewart finished 11th, meaning Johnson made up 15 points in the championship hunt. Stewart now leads Johnson by 82 points heading to Atlanta next week.

"To leave here and say that we had a shot at winning here is something that I never thought I would say," Johnson said. "If it wasn't for (Steve Grissom) running all over the side of us under caution and knocking the rear end out of the car, we'd be in a lot better position.

"I wanted to do doughnuts on the front stretch. We really, honestly, had a shot at winning it."

Martin now stands 123 points out of the lead, followed by Rusty Wallace (174 behind) and Ryan Newman (177).