Kurt Busch’s victory Sunday in the Pennsylvania 500 was such a foregone conclusion that even Busch was more interested in what was going on behind him.
There, over the final 17 laps, Busch and the crowd of about 90,000 at Pocono Raceway watched with a touch of nostalgia as NASCAR veterans Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin dueled for second place–with Wallace prevailing.
Busch, who won the Nextel Cup race under caution, was the class of the field throughout the afternoon. Starting on the outside of the front row, he pulled away on the opening lap and on every restart near the finish to make the win a certainty.
So Busch looked in his rear-view mirror after passing Wallace for the final time on Lap 183 and enjoyed the show.
“It’s always good to see competitors behind you competing for position,” said Busch, who averaged 125.283 m.p.h. over the 203-lap race, which was extended 7.5 miles by caution flags and a green-white-checkered flag finish.
“But this time it was so exciting to see it was those guys,” Busch said. “Those two guys have 50 top 10s on this track. It’ll be a long time before we see two competitors with their history. And, from my perspective, it’s really neat to race against guys like that–to challenge their knowledge and to be able to come out on top. I’m just beside myself.”
Wallace and Martin have built a lot of trust between them over the years. And both have announced this is their final season.
“This was a great day,” Wallace said. “I just had my very last race here and finished second. That feels good. I got out of the car and said I think I can still do this. . . . Lance Armstrong, when he got done today [at the Tour de France in Paris], said he was going out on top and he said the best compliment [you] can get is when people tell you that you still got it.”
Both Wallace and Martin are firmly among the top 10 qualifiers for the season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup with six races to go. Wallace in his No. 2 Dodge is fourth in points; Martin and his Ford seventh.
“We have 25 years of history or so,” said Martin, when asked what it would have taken to get around Wallace for second Sunday. “We’ve always been friends. . . . Today, Rusty and I didn’t see any need to run over each other for five points.”
As it was, other drivers seemed intent on running over each other over the final 10 laps. Three of 13 caution flags, that totaled 40 laps, occurred between Laps 191 and 200, and yet another came out shortly after the final restart on Lap 202. Debris accounted for seven of the earlier cautions.
But none of that bothered Busch.
