Speeding penalty destroys Busch's effort late at PIR

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- You know the old clichés by heart. It's a game of inches. It's over in a blink of an eye. Well, Kyle Busch and crew chief Steve Addington would like to add one of their own to the list: Too fast by a mere fraction of a mile per hour.

When Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crash brought out the final caution of Saturday night's Subway Fresh Fit 500 with a dozen laps remaining, it set up an intriguing scenario (watch video). Because it had been downright difficult -- in fact, almost impossible -- to chase down the leader at speed all evening, track position for the restart would be paramount. And in the No. 18 Toyota's pit, Addington marshaled his forces.

Subway Fresh Fit 500

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Mark Martin	Chevrolet
2.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
3.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
4.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
5.	Greg Biffle	Ford
6.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
7.	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet
8.	David Reutimann	Toyota
9.	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge
10.	Carl Edwards	Ford
17.	Kyle Busch	Toyota

• Results | Laps | Videos | Photos

Busch was running fourth at the time, behind Mark Martin, Tony Stewart and older brother Kurt Busch, but everyone in stall No. 13 knew one perfect stop might be the deciding factor.

The leaders peeled off behind the pace car and headed down Phoenix's curved pit road. Stewart, pitting just past the start/finish line, stopped first, followed by Kurt. Kyle then turned into his box and Martin disappeared around the bend.

For the 12-plus seconds it took for the crew to fill the tank and exchange four fresh tires, perfection seemed well within reach. The No. 18 jumped back into the fray in front of the other leaders, and Busch made a beeline for the white line that marks the end of pit road. Martin's car appeared to bobble on acceleration just as the jack dropped, and to the naked eye, it appeared that Busch had taken the lead.

But the excitement his pit stall was short-lived. Not only did slow-motion replays show that Martin narrowly edged Busch at the line, but the stopwatch held by the NASCAR official there revealed something even more devastating: Busch was over the pit-road speed limit.

Instead of leading the race, or at least being in a position to challenge Martin for the win in the closing laps, Busch was put at the tail-end of the lead-lap cars, relegating him to a 17th-place finish.

"The guys had a great stop and they said we were too fast exiting in the last pit stall and it killed our day," Busch said.

"At the last box they said we were .005 too fast leaving pit road," Addington added. "What are you going to do? You have to go to the back and get what you can out of it."

Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn't all doom and gloom at the No. 18 hauler after the race. Even though they were disappointed with the eventual finishing position, both driver and crew chief were pleased with the progress the team had made since the last visit to the Valley of the Sun.

"We didn't have the best race car but we had a lot better race car than we've had here in the past couple of races," Addington said. "This is the first time we ran this setup so we'll look forward to coming back here in November."

Busch had a similar opinion.

"We came here with a new setup and we weren't the best car, but made a huge improvement from last year," he said. "We didn't want to see that caution come out at the end."