Shootout Stellar…at the Finish

Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout ended with Kyle Busch crossing the finish line .01 seconds ahead of Tony Stewart despite nearly crashing out of the event twice.

That was the good news.

The bad news is, NASCAR’s new tweaks to the Daytona rules have some tweaks of their own to get through before Sunday.

Busch was shot out of line in Turn 2 with 20 laps to go and headed down off the banking, scraping the front of the M&M’S Toyota at least three times. Normally, that’s a death knell at Daytona, but Busch did the unthinkable: he saved it. Not once, not twice, but three times. The car didn’t get to 90.1 degrees, it stayed more or less straight, and he continued with the hammer down.

I’ve seen a lot on race tracks around the world. That was the single best save I’ve ever seen. And he Did. It. Three. Times.

“There aren’t many people, ever, who could have done that,” said Stewart after it was over.

I agree.

It happened again with two to go, when Jeff Gordon started banging on the rear deck of the 18 car in an attempt to move him up the track. It did, and exposed the left rear quarterpanel. Gordon hit it again, and off Busch went, to scrape the car’s nose two more times on the apron.

Busch saved it. Again. Gordon crashed, and so did about five others.

After all that, several trips to pit road and a bunch of hard-nosed racing, Busch pushed Stewart to the lead on the green-white-checkered and slid down in front of Marcos Ambrose on the white-flag lap. He pulled off the slingshot off Turn 4 and beat Stewart to the line by that .01-second margin.

It was sweet redemption for Busch, who had not driven the M&M’s car since last November—missing the sponsor for Texas and Homestead after crashing Ron Hornaday in a NASCAR Truck race at TMS.

“First time back in the M&M’s car and we’re in Victory Lane,” he said, referring to that fact. He was very humble, for Kyle Busch, and it showed that his punishment, for the moment, did make an impact.

Perseverance has not been a hallmark for any driver with the last name Busch in recent years. Kurt got in trouble at Homestead and lost his ride with Roger Penske. He landed with James Finch and could have had a hand in winning the Shootout for a second straight year had it not been for the second crash with Gordon and Kyle Busch.

Kyle, driving a car that looked more like a demo derby entry than a superspeedway car, came out of that unscathed, despite another scrape job, while brother Kurt and Gordon went back to the garage in pieces.

“First time, luck,” Kyle joked later. “Second time…all skill!” The boy drives like Foyt, cracks jokes like Letterman.

Gordon actually flipped and landed on the roof, the first time he’d ever been on his head in a NASCAR machine.

Lots of cars did that, and depending on what you thought about the racing, it could happen again on Sunday.

NASCAR went to some lengths to take away the two-car draft and bring back the pack racing that was the hallmark of plate racing. They got what they wanted…and then some.

The pack racing was spectacular, no doubt. But it was also more dangerous. The spoilers were reduced in size as part of that package, and they made the cars dance more than M.C. Hammer. The lack of rear downforce, combined with the sideforce plates on the roofs of the cars, turned the racing machines into so many children’s tops when struck in the left rear area.

Right around they went, and the pack just made the racing more a high-speed pinball game than an exhibition. Ask Gordon. Ask Clint Bowyer, who nearly went on two scary rides instead of the one he took through the tri-oval off the bumper of teammate Martin Truex Jr.

Ask Joey Logano, David Ragan, Paul Menard, Michael Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Matt Kenseth…the list goes on.

I’m afraid if NASCAR doesn’t add spoiler, it will spoil all the momentum they had coming into the season.

Of course, NASCAR rarely over-reacts twice, and never in the same area once they’ve made a change. If they add some spoiler, a half-inch or so, then the cars could get into the track instead of scraping along the top.

The soft rear springs don’t help that, either. The air they generate moves them around too much, and they start to skate and can’t stop.

For one night, Kyle Busch shed some demons and gained a few fans. NASCAR, after performing its own exorcism on what ills they thought ailed the sport, just gained a new demon. We’ll see what happens and if they change anything before the 500.

Remember, fans complained unmercifully about Noah’s Ark, and NASCAR reacted. Be careful what you wish for, because it just might happen, and you wind up with the Budweiser Shootout, 2012.

It was a great race for a lot of good reasons, but it was 75 laps. Sunday’s race is 200…and there are only 43 cars.

Congrats, Kyle, on an amazing victory.