Rain leaves hard-charging Busch a bridesmaid

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Mother Nature showed up at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday afternoon looking for a dance partner. But just as Kurt Busch made his move, Michael Waltrip cut in and swept her off her feet.

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Busch was running second to Waltrip on lap 109 when the darkening skies opened up again, dousing the track with a persistent downpour that brought out the day's second rain-related red flag. The race would never resume.

"It's difficult to accept and swallow," said Busch of his unfinished business. "It's the greatest race we go to every year. It's the beginning of the season for us, and whether or not we continued forward, it was the weather's decision.

"With the whole eastern seaboard now being snowed in, rained in, there's a lot of weather. It would have been great to continue it. It's somewhat upsetting to see it finish up (under caution)."

VIDEO CLIPS Victory Lane Play video Jimmie Johnson settles for third Play video Michael Waltrip passes Johnson for the lead Play video Dale Earnhardt Jr. loses three laps to battery problems Play video Earnhardt Jr. leads after the first rain delay Play video Watch the Ryan Newman crash in slow motion Play video Ryan Newman is interviewed after his spectacular crash Play video Green flag Play video

Not that he's upset with scoring a second-place finish in a race where he clearly wasn't driving a second-place car.

Like Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was driving a rocket ship. He led the race from lap 43 to lap 64 and was running second to Waltrip on lap 87 when the alternator failed in the Budweiser Chevrolet. He was forced to pit out of sequence to replace the battery.

"I guess if the race continued forward, the 8 car would have worked his way back on the lead lap and we would have had to have dealt with two DEI cars," Busch said.

"It was amazing. I can give you some insight from the driver's seat. Sitting there, when the 8 car dropped out, everybody's faces lit up. Everybody's eyes got big. Everybody's right foot got heavy. It was a whole new race."

Junior returned to the track two laps down to the leader, but his car was as fast as any on the track. He made up one lap and set sail on a second. Then the rains came.

"With the way that DEI has a threshold on the competition, they're able to do things to help one another maintain the lead and maintain second," Busch said. "We're all racing for third. Today I ended up second just due to the fact that there was a mechanical issue on the 8 car."

He'll take it, especially after last Thursday's run-in with Kevin Harvick on pit road during the Gatorade 125s that damaged two capable racecars.

By rebounding to finish second, Busch builds on the momentum he carried into the offseason after winning three of the final five events of the 2002 campaign.

"Everybody shows to Daytona on a clean slate, but yeah we do have some momentum from last year," he said. "The guys are really pumped up about getting started. They put as much work as we possibly could into our car to make it go fast. We finished fourth here last spring, it was a wonderful finish, but this was a little bit better.

"We had an altercation on pit road where I decided to pit with the group. I committed too late and Harvick spun us on pit road. Not saying he could've moved out of the way for us, we did run across his nose and the jackman got some bumps and bruises.

"So yes, up and down week. Every time we come to Daytona it's an up and down week. We're happy to get a top five, just like last year."

Maybe next year, he'll get to finish that dance.