Kurt Busch’s win an emotional one – ESPN

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RICHMOND, Va. — Kurt Busch‘s victory in the Toyota Owners 400 will no doubt spark a spirited debate over whether he deserves his place in the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Of course Busch missed three races earlier this year, suspended by NASCAR while he was investigated in a domestic violence case. He has been on a tear since returning to the wheel of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet after authorities chose not to pursue charges and NASCAR lifted the suspension, his hot streak culminating with his win Sunday in the rain-delayed race at Richmond International Raceway.

Granted a Chase eligibility waiver from NASCAR, Busch has now likely qualified for the playoffs — assuming he can remain in the top 30 in the point standings, which shouldn’t be a problem because he has already moved all the way up to 18th despite not starting at Daytona, Atlanta or Las Vegas.

While Busch’s berth will once again rev up discussion about the merits of the NASCAR Chase system, one inarguable fact is that when he is on his game, Busch is one of the strongest drivers in the Sprint Cup Series.

He has been threatening to break into Victory Lane since a crew chief swap late in the 2014 season that teamed him with veteran Tony Gibson. Busch’s win at Richmond was his 26th in Cup Series competition, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Busch exclaimed in a television interview upon alighting from his car. “It’s a total team effort. And the way that everything came together just seemed like we were building and building and building toward a great finish like this.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling when you pull deep from within and you go through troubles. When you’re accused of something and things go sideways, your personal life doesn’t need to affect your business life,” he continued. “And I’m here in Victory Lane.”

Certainly nobody else deserved to win this race. Busch led 294 of the 400 laps in a dominant short-track performance.

Kevin Harvick completed a 1-2 finish for Stewart-Haas Racing, Jimmie Johnson ran third and Jamie McMurray fourth. Harvick was slowed by a bad set of tires that set him back to midfield in the middle of the race, Johnson couldn’t overcome a poor 36th-place qualifying effort, and McMurray had perhaps the fastest car over a long run, but he ran out of laps.

In short, Busch wasn’t going to be beaten on this day.

“Kurt had what you needed to win today,” McMurray said. “I could run him down by the end of green-flag runs, but he had such a quick car on restarts. I had three shots at him where I tried to get him to make a mistake but he was perfect.”

In truth, this wasn’t a race that Busch and Gibson were expecting to win after practice, and even after qualifying third fastest on Friday. Gibson said he thought the No. 41 was a fifth-place car at best.

But Gibson disclosed that Busch is more involved in car setup than any other driver he has worked with in his long stock-car racing career. Their collaborative work paid off, because Kurt moved past Denny Hamlin into second place on the opening lap.

Once Busch got ahead of pole man Joey Logano on Lap 95, he was rarely challenged again.

“We made adjustments going into today, and the way the car drove, the change we made overnight was perfect,” the 2004 Cup Series champion said. “It’s a total team effort. There’s no one person or no single difference-maker.

“There are so many things you have to do right to win in Sprint Cup — get the chassis right, get the tires right, get the engine right, pit strategy — I had it all today.”

If Busch’s NASCAR career as a whole has been tumultuous, the past six months since the domestic violence allegations made by his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, were made public may have been the bumpiest to date.

Yet perhaps as a result of the counseling he has received, Busch’s demeanor since being cleared is calm to the point of serene.

Clearly showing plenty of speed since his return, Busch brushed the wall a week ago at Bristol Motor Speedway and realized that he was pressing, perhaps over-driving the car, and he made a conscious effort to slow himself down.

The results were on display Sunday at Richmond.

“I think I might have been driving too hard, with too much of a chip on my shoulder, so to speak, to start the year,” he admitted. “I felt I needed to just settle down, and get into the groove where you just let the race come to you. Let the talent of the crew members come into play, and that way we all carry the same weight.

“I think I was just trying to carry too much weight.”

The teaming of Busch with Gibson has worked well because they have similar personalities and a similar work ethic. They drive each other, driving the team as a whole forward.

“We’re hard on ourselves when we’ve got to be better, and I think we both have that same mindset,” Gibson said. “I think he makes me better, and hopefully I make him better.

“Moving forward, I think if we push one another and believe in one another like we’re doing right now, we’ve got a shot to win the championship just as well as anybody.”

Busch knows that second chances don’t come along often, and he may even recognize that he’s on his third or fourth second chance.

Maybe that’s why he was unusually emotional in Victory Lane at Richmond. Busch may have had bigger wins in his career, but few felt better.

“There are so many short-term feelings with all that’s been going on in the last six months,” he said. “It feels good to put a stamp on that. To have [team co-owner] Gene Haas stand behind me the whole time and everybody that’s part of our whole family, it’s a team effort, and I’m happy to bring that trophy home today.

“We’ve got a lot of things ahead of us and this is a great start,” Busch added. “I just can’t thank this team enough. This team stood behind me and it feels good to deliver for them. I’m very emotional right now — it’s pretty cool.”