Busch sends message with victory in All-Star Race (cont'd)

"I couldn't see Turn 1. All I could do is listen to the spotter. When he said, 'The 2 is outside,' I was trying to figure out where we were at -- whether he had gotten loose or what," Addington said. "But then when he passed the buildings on the backstretch and I could see him from the pit box again, I saw he was passing both [brother Kyle and Hamlin] and going for the lead.

"I was like, 'Well, holy crap! Here we go! This is gonna be good.' Because I knew if anything happened and we had a chance to race anyone on a green-white-checkered, he was going to get up on the wheel and make it happen for us."

Once he got into the lead, Kurt had to remind himself that there probably would be extra laps tacked onto the event at the end. There wasn't any such trickery via the green-white-checkered format -- but only because caution laps aren't counted in this non-points event.

There still were three nail-biting restarts as it came to the finish, including one caused by Kyle finally blowing a tire as well as his stack and getting into the wall one final time to finish his night. Each time there was a double-file restart, Kurt Busch proved up to the task of fending off all challengers.

"We were probably like three seconds ahead of the field with five to go and then it dawned on me, 'Oh, yeah, you're gonna have restarts,'" Kurt said. "So I just calmed myself and felt pretty good about it because I think I'm one of the better ones on the restarts."

Giving him credit

Addington obviously felt the same way. At that point, it didn't matter that Kurt had brushed the outside wall twice himself earlier in the night -- beating up the right side of the car. In Addington's mind, all that mattered was where they were on the track, and who was in the driver's seat.

"I would rather have him than anybody else sitting in that race car, when it comes down to it," Addington said. "He has shown me a lot -- how he is patient through practice and what he picks up during a race. He's a lot smarter than y'all think."

Addington said he loves how he can sit down and exchange information and ideas with the elder Busch on a regular basis. He also insisted -- again -- that Kurt doesn't get the credit he deserves as a driver.

"I don't think he's as flamboyant as some people, as far as going out and grabbing the media's attention," Addington said. "I think that's why we get along so well. We're here to work on race cars. We're here to try to win races week in and week out. We're sitting in the lounge for two or three hours after practices, talking about how to make the race car better.

"He has taught me a lot on how to respect a driver that is just truly focused on what the team [is doing] and the cars he's driving. He just wants to focus on that, make the program better. The talent that guy's got is just unbelievable. I hope we can win enough races to get him the credit I think he deserves."

Saturday's win, Kurt Busch's first in the All-Star event in nine tries, went a long way toward that. Now it is matter of carrying the momentum earned in the final 10 laps Saturday to next Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 points race and beyond.

"Right now we're ninth in points. We're a little bit further behind than where we want to be," Busch said. "We have to build some consistency back into [the program]. ... We're going to have to continue to fight harder and get ourselves up in the mix with the Gibbs [Racing] and Hendrick [Motorsports] guys week in and week out."

That group includes his little brother Kyle. But Kurt's coming with a full head of steam, and his crew chief is betting on the Busch brother he currently works with over the one for which he used to work. When all the fireworks were done exploding over Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night, that suddenly seemed in the spur of the moment like it might not be a bad bet after all.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.