Busch grabbed the lead for the fourth and final time on lap 65 when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. came in to pit. From there, Busch steadily pulled away from the competition each and every lap. A 43-minute red-flag stoppage with six laps to go delayed the inevitable. A major wreck in turn 11 involving nine cars required an extensive clean-up. But once the green flag was back out, Busch finished his day where he started, in the number one position.
“This year has just been phenomenal,” Busch exclaimed. “I just can’t thank Toyota enough; I can’t thank the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing (enough). It was fun to be able to race out there and I had a great time racing with my friend and my teammate, Tony Stewart there. I’m really going to miss seeing him at the end of the year and wish he would have stayed.”
With the win, Busch clinched the top spot in the 10-race Chase to the Sprint Cup Championship. He also set a new NASCAR record for three road-course wins in a season. Busch extended his current points lead to 242 over second place, and increased his win total to 16 for the season across NASCAR’s top three divisions.
Behind Busch’s eighth checkered flag of the season, Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Tony Stewart, finished in second place. With the strong finish, Stewart jumped up two spots in the points standings to seventh. Saturday’s winner in the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen, Marcos Ambrose, again surprised fans with a third-place result on Sunday. Juan Pablo Montoya finished in fourth, while Martin Truex, Jr. finished the day in fifth.
Denny Hamlin helped to round out a strong day for Joe Gibbs Racing. After a one-two finish by Busch and Stewart, Hamlin brought his No. 11 Toyota home in eighth place. By doing so, he moved up one more place in the points standings to ninth. 8/14/2008