Kyle's great amid crummy ending at 'Dega

TALLADEGA, Ala. - The Aaron's 499 was a camera whose film had run out. Kyle Busch's victory seemed like a still shot while 150,000 fans dreamt of streaming video.

The white flag at Talladega Superspeedway signaled a lap to go, but it might as well have been unfurled to signify "wreck at will." Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin were poised to settle the matter among them, but the hornet's nest behind them would have none of it.

It was a good race that should've been a great one.

"About 10 (laps) to go, things got crazy," said Busch. "My memory's a little sketchy, but getting to the front was pretty complicated."

Montoya had obligingly used his Dodge to push Busch's Toyota through the field, but the Colombian's motives had hardly been altruistic. Montoya had designs on victory lane. So, too, did Busch's teammate, Denny Hamlin, who let it be known afterwards that he hadn't necessarily been planning on being the selfless teammate.

"The ‘42' (Montoya) was just my savior," said Busch. "He pushed me all the way to the front, and we stayed there."
Busch got all kinds of unexpected help. A former teammate, Jeff Gordon, assisted Busch instead of his own teammate, Jimmie Johnson, near the end. Gordon took care of Johnson. Montoya then took care of Gordon by, in Busch's words, "shoving him out of the way."

Voila!

"I don't think you can plan anything," said Montoya. "You stay in your line, but there are so many drivers out there, all making their own moves, and there's no way you can anticipate what they're all going to do. In the last few laps, you've got to figure out a way to get it done, and there's no planning to it.

"It's do what you've got to do and hope it turns out all right."

Hamlin might have decided the outcome.

"If the ‘18' (Busch) had blocked Juan (Montoya) and moved up, I definitely would've gone for the win if those two had gotten bogged down enough," said Hamlin. "If he (Busch) stayed low, I was going to have to stay on his bumper."
No one will ever know.

The screech of metal, screech of tires and stench of burning rubber turned the ninth race of the Sprint Cup season into a flawed masterpiece. Everything was right except the ending.

The final lap couldn't have been more untidy had it been run in a thunderstorm. Michael McDowell looped his Toyota near the start-finish line as the leaders roared through turns one and two. As Busch, Montoya and Hamlin steamed off turn two, victory designs dancing in their minds, hell broke loose behind them.

Eleven cars - driven by Regan Smith, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, David Stremme, David Reutimann, Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip, Joe Nemechek and A.J. Allmendinger - crashed, turning the battle at the front into a moot point.

Matt Kenseth drove the first car bitten by Talladega's high banks. The No. 17 skittered into the wall in turn two on lap 20.

Stewart led the first 32 laps until being passed by teammate Denny Hamlin. Jamie McMurray, whose Ford helped Hamlin's Toyota take the lead, settled into third behind the Toyota teammates. The action heated up five laps later when Earnhardt Jr., Gordon and Brian Vickers led an outside drafting line past the inside line led by Hamlin and Stewart.

A blistered right-front tire cost Carl Edwards an unscheduled pit stop and a lap.

Around the 50-lap mark, with the early leaders pried loose, Paul Menard and Montoya both led briefly before Hamlin and then Earnhardt returned to the front. Kevin Harvick, who had started 39th, led lap 57.

A green-flag pit sequence put Stewart back in the lead. Busch missed his pit stall, which is what put the eventual winner a lap behind.

The action was mostly single file, with various drivers taking turns at the point, until the end drew near. Predictably, the action grew progressively more exciting as drivers grew frantic.

Tire failure sent Stewart into the turn-two wall on lap 144, and though the damage didn't send the front-row starter to the garage, it did put him at the back of the pack.

Montoya's Dodge sent Paul Menard's Chevy sliding through the tri-oval grass on lap 160, and the crowd gasped as Menard narrowly avoided having his No. 15 slide back across the track as the rest of the pack roared by. The action had barely resumed when a piece of debris from Vickers' car brought out the race's fifth caution flag.

In the final 14 laps, there would be three more.

On lap 171, Busch made a remarkable save after being bumped from behind by McMurray's Ford. Two laps later, with drafting help from Montoya, Busch took the lead. That same lap, Earnhardt's wobble touched off a crash that sent the cars of Stewart, McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty spinning. Earnhardt's car required repairs on pit road due to damage to the right-rear.

Busch, once a lap down, held the lead until lap 180, when Michael Waltrip slipped past on the outside, followed by Johnson. Bobby Labonte's spin abruptly brought the yellow flag out again. When the race resumed, five laps remained.

"I'm really proud of him being patient," said Busch's crew chief, Steve Addington. "When we got a lap behind, we had a good enough car to come back. He was so patient when he got in the back of the pack and took his time, didn't panic."

You can reach Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.