Sunoco Pit Move: Bristol

Heading into Sunday's Food City 500, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth had combined for seven of the past 10 Bristol victories.

However, poor qualifying efforts Friday left both teams having to pit on the backstretch of the high-banked concrete half-mile -- and looking for unique strategies to gain track position at a track where passing can be at a premium.

Lap-by-Lap

Kurt Busch encountered a series of misfortunes Sunday in the Food City 500 at Bristol.

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When the opportunity arose early in the race, crews for the No. 2 Dodge and No. 17 Ford took the gamble. It paid off for one, while the other saw a series of misfortune end in a wrecked race car at the finish.

Kenseth started 38th while Busch rolled off 42nd -- with both hoping for an early caution -- and it came on Lap 19 when Reed Sorenson spun. Most of the tail end cars came down for service during the caution period while the leaders stayed out. While Matt Kenseth and others took four tires, Busch took two, and came back out in 28th position.

Then when four cars got together on Lap 45, bringing out another yellow, Busch and Kenseth both stayed out behind J.J. Yeley as the rest of the field ducked into the pits for service. That's where each driver's day went in opposite directions.

Kenseth would spend 167 laps in the top 10 and wound up 11th despite a broken shock.

"We didn't run good all day and didn't have a really good day, but we didn't finish too bad," Kenseth said. "I think we had some broken stuff at the end. I think we busted a shock with about 200 to go and that pretty much did us in."

Busch's day got progressively worse. It didn't look that way at first, as Busch took the lead on Lap 61 and held it for nine laps. But as his tires began to go away, he slipped out of the top five.

David Ragan's spin on Lap 121 allowed Busch to pit for fresh rubber. However, what appeared to be good news at first glance quickly turned bad when the No. 2 got pinned in his pit box and lost 10 positions.

Bad became worse when the handling went away on Busch's Dodge. Over the next 70 laps he slipped farther back -- getting lapped by leader Tony Stewart by Lap 184. With no caution in sight, Busch headed for the pits to get new tires, a move that wound up backfiring for two reasons.

One, instead of coming back onto the track in Turn 3, Busch went all the way through the frontstretch pit stalls at 30 mph, losing a total of three laps in the process. Two, the caution came out less than 15 laps later, stranding Busch in 37th position.

That ended any chance Busch had of salvaging a decent finish. The plan from that point on was to get the car back on the hauler undamaged -- and even that went by the boards when Busch was rear-ended by Regan Smith and slammed into the outside wall after his brother, Kyle, took the checkered flag.

Busch finished 29th.

"Man, that about says it all for the way our day went," Busch said. "We started far behind and never could really dig ourselves out of that hole. It was good to lead laps, but when the handling went away our chances for a decent finish went away in a hurry."