(Victory Lane celebration at the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (left to right) Steve Addington (Crew Chief No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge), Roger Penske (Chairman, Penske Corporation), Eva Busch (wife), Kurt Busch (Driver, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger).

The following is by Dennis Darnell, of our trackside communications  team.

HAMPTON, Ga.  – Kurt Busch took Dodge to victory lane again at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  Busch won last year’s spring event at AMS in impressive fashion, leading 234 of 330 laps.  This time around, he led 129 in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge to claim his 21st NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.
 
Busch led the final 10 laps in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 including two restarts for a green-white-checkered finish due to mishaps.  Collecting the maximum 190 points, Busch vaulted from 19th to 10th in the driver point standings, 142 behind the leader.
 
Penske Racing had all three Dodge Chargers in the top 10 at the 200-lap mark with Sam Hornish Jr. running sixth and Brad Keselowski right behind in seventh.  Both drivers ran as high as fourth, before different issues negated a top-10 finish.  For Hornish, it was a mechanical problem (valve issue).  For Keselowski, it was a case of being wrecked intentionally by another driver – Carl Edwards.
 
Busch started 11th in the Blue Deuce, but was in the top 10 at the end of the first lap and stayed there the remainder of the event with the exception of a couple green-flag pit cycles.  The over-the-wall crew performed flawlessly through the race, often gaining their driver positions with quick pit work.  The group did just that during the eighth caution.  Busch came to pit road second, but exited first following a four-tire and fuel stop.
 
Busch held a comfortable advantage with just over two laps remaining only to have it erased by a caution.  To make the situation more intense for the Penske Racing group, the yellow flag appeared because a driver intentionally wrecked Keselowski, sending the No. 12 Mopar/FLO TV Dodge Charger on its top.  Keselowski was running sixth at the time. 
 
The front runners elected to pit for tires while two cars stayed on the track.  Busch restarted fourth but had retaken the lead before the lap was completed and another caution appeared for a seven-car mishap which set up the final green-white-checkered.
 
Busch quickly grabbed the lead on the final restart and held on for a .482-second advantage at the checkered flag.
 
“The Deuce is back baby,” Busch told his team over the radio as he started his reverse victory lap.  “Way to go boys.  Awesome pit stops.”
 
From the opening laps, it was apparent the No. 2 Dodge was fast on new tires and could hold its own on long runs.  While many teams experienced problems with tire wear, that was never an issue for Busch or crew chief Steve Addington.
 
“For Dodge, this is a great win,” Busch said.  “When Kurt wins, somebody wins a Dodge Challenger, so hopefully you have your UPC labels in.  I’m so excited for this team and all of our sponsors right now.  Just thanks to Miller Lite, Dodge…to Sprint…to the fans here and all the fans watching on TV.  We’ve got a great combination right now.
 
“Our Miller Lite Dodge was set up as a utility-type car.  What I mean by that is it was good on long runs, good in the middle runs and good on the short runs.  We weren’t excellent in any area, but good overall with the different stints you have to run on tires.”
 
Busch said Sunday’s win was much tougher than a year earlier, mostly because the tires were different.  He also pointed out another change.
 
“I’ll tell you another thing that changed, and it changed for the better,” he said.  “That’s the guy sitting to my right (Steve Addington).  Steve has taught me how to drive cars different, how to look at them differently.  When you want to get up on the wheel for somebody like Steve, good things happen.
 
“I’m happy to bring it home for Steve, this team.  This win for Dodge early in the year means a lot to us, means a lot to the people up in Detroit.”
 
For Addington, it was a win at the site of his first victory as a crew chief.
 
“It feels awesome to get that first win at Atlanta,” Addington said.  “To come back here and put this together, this was a team effort.  It feels good to be with this race team, with Kurt as the driver and come back and win before the 18 car got a chance to win.  I’m still great friends with Kyle (Addington served as Kyle Busch’s crew chief last year before being replaced) and everything.  But it’s a good feeling.  It’s a relief in a certain way.
 
“It all comes back to the team.  You know, I didn’t win this race today.  Kurt won this race with these guys on pit road, these guys that put this car together and worked on it throughout practice.  This was a total team effort all weekend long.”
 
Keselowski qualified 28th in the No. 12 Mopar/FLO TV Dodge Charger.  Despite a brush with the wall early in the race, Keselowski was on the move and was running in the top 10 by lap 170.  He remained there until the late-race mishap.
“Penske Racing had some phenomenal cars today,” he said.  “I’m really proud of the 12 team, everybody on the Mopar 12 Dodge Charger.  That was just a wild ride that was uncalled for.”
 
Keselowski explained his encounter with Edwards earlier in the race.  “He cut down on me on a restart and I lifted; I couldn’t lift fast enough for him.  I lifted for him to let him in, but I was there.  I don’t know what more you can do.  So I was underneath him, I tried to cut him a break.  It was too late though, he turned down.  I apologized to him but there was nothing that I could do in that situation.  To come back and intentionally wreck someone, that’s not cool.  I know that’s it’s a little ironic that I’m saying that, but at least I didn’t do it intentionally when it happened.  It will be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it.  They have the ball.  If they’re going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or in the grandstands.  It’s not cool to wreck someone intentionally at 195 mph.”
 
Edwards was parked immediately for rough driving.  NASCAR called both teams to the hauler to discuss the incident and say the situation will be reviewed further this week.  Keselowski finished 36th.
 
“We had a really good Dodge Charger,” said Jay Guy, crew chief for the No. 12 Dodge.  “It shows the teamwork we have between the 2 and 77.  Penske Racing had a good day.  The support of Dodge has been awesome.  We’ve got this program headed in
the right direction.  We’ve had a lot of positives this year.  We just haven’t had the finishes to show them off.  Today’s another example of that.  I’m really proud of these guys.  Kurt helped Brad out.  We worked hard with Travis and Steve all weekend.  It paid big dividends there.  Brad is OK.  We just look forward to the coming weeks.”
 
Hornish started 36th in the No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, but immediately began working his way up through the field.  By lap 134, he was running 15th and cracked the top 10 on lap 172.  He continued to run in the top 10, moving up to fourth with on-track passes.  That charge slowed when Hornish radioed his car was on seven cylinders.
 
“We had a good day going,” he said.  “It’s unfortunate we had to start so far back.  We really had something for everybody on the long runs.  After about 20-25 laps, we could run as fast as or faster than anybody out there.  Compared to our normal Atlanta stuff, this is a big improvement.  We just can’t keep having these little problems.  It never happens on a day where we’re trapped anyhow, running 35th or whatever.  It always happens when we’re running in the top 10.  We’ll take it from here and move forward.  I’m really proud of all the guys on the Mobil 1 Dodge.” 
 
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES
 
The Nationwide Series is enjoying a two-week break before returning to action on March 20 at Bristol Motor Speedway.