Kyle Busch beats Tony Stewart to win wild Budweiser Shootout
Kyle Busch escaped several incidents to beat Tony Stewart to victory in a wild Budweiser Shootout as the NASCAR season got underway at Daytona
The non-championship race featured three large multi-car accidents, the first as early as lap nine, and the last prompting a green-white-chequered finish after Jeff Gordon's Hendrick Chevrolet was sent rolling following contact first with Busch, then with his team-mate Jimmie Johnson. No one was hurt in any of the accidents.
The sprint finale saw Stewart (Stewart-Haas Chevrolet) and Busch (Joe Gibbs Toyota) charge back to the front of the pack after initially being shuffled back, with Busch then going around the outside of the reigning Sprint Cup champion at the final corner of the race and inching ahead to win by just 0.013 seconds.
Richard Petty Ford driver Marcos Ambrose was third despite being involved in the second of the three major crashes, with Penske's Brad Keselowski and Gibbs driver Denny Hamlin completing the top five.
The race showed that NASCAR's efforts to eliminate the recent practice of tandem drafting had been successful, with the field racing in large multi-car packs throughout the event, though the number of multi-car crashes is likely to prompt further discussion about the 'restrictor-plate' racetrack rules package.
Results - 82 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Kyle Busch Gibbs Toyota 1h37m09.000s
2. Tony Stewart Stewart-Haas Chevrolet + 0.013s
3. Marcos Ambrose Petty Ford + 0.211s
4. Brad Keselowski Penske Dodge + 0.393s
5. Denny Hamlin Gibbs Toyota + 0.560s
6. Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Ford + 0.738s
7. Ryan Newman Stewart-Haas Chevrolet + 0.751s
8. Clint Bowyer Waltrip Toyota + 0.883s
9. Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Ford + 1.386s
10. Juan Pablo Montoya Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet + 2.133s
11. Jeff Burton Childress Chevrolet + 1 lap
12. AJ Allmendinger Penske Dodge + 2 laps
13. Kasey Kahne Hendrick Chevrolet + 3 laps
Did not finish:
Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Chevrolet 74 laps
Jeff Gordon Hendrick Chevrolet 73 laps
Jamie McMurray Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet 73 laps
Kurt Busch Phoenix Chevrolet 73 laps
Joey Logano Gibbs Toyota 54 laps
Martin Truex Jr Waltrip Toyota 54 laps
Dale Earnhardt Jr Hendrick Chevrolet 54 laps
Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Ford 54 laps
Kevin Harvick Childress Chevrolet 54 laps
Paul Menard Childress Chevrolet 8 laps
David Ragan Front Row Ford 8 laps
Michael Waltrip Waltrip Toyota 8 laps
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