Busch gets back at Gordon, and not just for M'ville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Jeff Gordon has roughed up the Blue Deuce in the past to steal a couple of race victories, but Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Kurt Busch didn't let Gordon get away with it.

They were racing for 12th and 13th on Lap 385 when Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet roared into Turn 3 under Busch's No. 2 Dodge, made slight contact with the car's left-rear fender to move it up the track, and passed under Busch.

Turnabout move

Jeff Gordon winds up in the wall after Kurt Busch reciprocates for previous contact.

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Busch accelerated through the corner and, coming off Turn 4 hooked Gordon's left-rear, turning him across the frontstretch and into the inside wall. Earlier this season, Gordon had said when he hit someone on the track, he expected the action to come back around to him -- but this one seemed exempt.

"We were racing hard," Gordon said. "We got shuffled back on the pit stop before that. We ran [Busch] down quite a bit -- we were quite a bit faster than him. I dove inside of him going into Turn 3 and I definitely overshot it a little bit.

"Either he didn't know I was there or whatever, and cut down on me and I got into him. Kurt Busch doesn't have a very long fuse -- so either it was payback or he just got angry really quick and decided to wreck us."

Gordon, whose winless streak reached a career-worst 61 races, started 11th, was into the top five within 25 laps and led 56 laps around the race's midpoint. After a bad pit stop, he said desperation to get back to the front had nothing to do with it.

"No, that's a move I make all the time -- you see it all day long," Gordon said. "I probably made that one a little later than I probably would liked to have. I barely got into him but that's what my point is, that I gave him enough of a reason to think that he should wreck me. So, that's just 'have at it boys, right?' That's just racing -- that's just part of it."

When the race ended, Gordon pulled his battered car up behind its hauler and got out, glaring in the direction of Busch's trailer, five or six haulers away.

After debriefing with crew chief Steve Addington in their truck, Busch, who finished 16th, went out the back door and started to walk away, talking to a print reporter, stopping when he realized an ESPN crew wanted to speak to him and wanting to enable a clearer shot for them -- as even more media gathered. Busch interrupted a questioner who began describing the action.

"Look, there was good racing all day amongst a lot of guys," Busch said. "There was respect given for guys when they were getting back to the inside [depending] on who was on the outside lane on restarts.

"And so yeah, [Gordon] shoved me in there and I shoved him back in Turn 4. I didn't mean to get into him that hard, but over the years with Gordon here, wrecking the 97 [Roush Racing Ford formerly driven by Busch], wrecking the 2 car -- whether you're a current Kurt fan or an ex-Rusty [Wallace, who drove the blue No. 2 before Busch] fan, he's wrecked the 2 car a lot here."

Gordon's 20th place finish ended a string of 15 consecutive Martinsville top-10s for the man who's won here seven times in his career, though not since this race in 2005.

Busch's finish was his best here in eight races, since he finished 12th in the spring of 2007, but it was little consolation as he remained ninth in the points, 277 behind Chase leader Jimmie Johnson.

"This place has been a monster for me over the years," said Busch, who after starting 29th, couldn't get into the top 10 until Lap 375. "We started back in the pack, worked our way up and gained a ton of track position. Then we came in under green and had to pit a second time because of some loose lug nuts, which cost us all of our position.

"We fought our way back inside the top 10, dropped to 15th, back inside the top 12 -- just a back and forth effort all day for us. We rubbed fenders, battled and clawed all day -- there was a lot of hard racing going on all day. (Continued)