Busch finishes fourth to cap busy weekend

By: Associated Press | Sunday, February 17, 2008 10:13 PM PST ∞

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ---- Kyle Busch ran more laps than anyone during Speedweeks. He led a bunch of them, too.

Just not the ones that really mattered.

Busch finished fourth in the Daytona 500 on Sunday, ending a hectic weekend that also included strong showings in the Craftsman Truck Series and the Nationwide Series.

Busch was second in both of those.

He was considerably better in the big one, leading a race-high 86 laps and dominating most of the afternoon.

But several late cautions kept the field bunched together, and Penske Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch hooked up to prevent Busch from getting to Victory Lane.

"Just frustrating to come home fourth," Busch said. "But that's part of the Daytona 500 when you run as good as we had all day long. Those guys couldn't keep up with us, but there were all those cautions at the end that propelled them forward enough in order to get them ahead."

Busch was the only driver to race in NASCAR's three series this weekend, and even he questioned whether it was a smart idea considering it creates triple the practice sessions, qualifying attempts, drivers' meetings, team meetings, media interviews and sponsorship obligations.

But he also proved his worth, quite possibly something he felt he needed to do after getting dumped by Hendrick Motorsports last season to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Living legends

Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough sat next to each other Sunday, maybe the perfect pairing for NASCAR's celebration of the 50th running of the Daytona 500.

The two former series champions were at the center of an on-track brawl in 1979, the one in which Yarborough and Bobby and Donnie Allison were kicking, swinging and scuffling at the end of NASCAR's first live, flag-to-flag televised race.

The fight sparked more interest than ever before in the sport.

Nearly 30 years later, Yarborough and Bobby Allison joined nearly two dozen Daytona 500 winners brought together by NASCAR before The Great American Race.

"They are the men that built this sport; they created this great event," said NASCAR board member Jim France, the brother of late NASCAR chairman and CEO Bill France Jr. "Their actions over the years have established the history of this place.

"If my brother was here today, he would say, 'They built it, they did a hell of a job, and don't screw it up, guys.' "

The former Daytona 500 winners played a key role in a daylong tribute to five decades of racing at NASCAR's most famous track, a 2 1/2-mile superspeedway that helped the sport become a national draw.

The winners, including Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt and Junior Johnson, collectively gave the command for drivers to start their engines.

Three former champions were missing during the pre-race drivers' meeting: Darrell Waltrip was working as a television analyst; David Pearson had an emergency; and seven-time race winner Richard Petty had another engagement.

Petty later joined them trackside and dropped the green flag to start the race.

Generally speaking

Despite recently announcing a record financial loss, General Motors is committed to staying in NASCAR.

GM lost $38.7 billion in 2007 and has announced a round of employee buyouts. But General Motors vice president of global sales and marketing John Middlebrook said the company's outlook is brighter than that number would indicate.

And he said now is no time to stop spending on its Chevrolet brand and that NASCAR would be "the last racing that we would drop," because the return on their investment is high.