Carl Edwards’ Bump on Kyle Busch - “He’d do it to me”
NASCAR News from ThatsRacin.com
BRISTOL, Tenn. - Kyle Busch believed Carl Edwards would offer up an empty apology after Edwards bumped his way past Busch to win Saturday night’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Wrong.
“I feel like I was extremely justified to do what I did,” Edwards said after his bump in Turn 1 on Lap 470 ended Busch’s streak of 415 laps led and propelled Edwards toward his third victory in the past four Sprint Cup races.
“I needed to do it and that’s the way it went,” the unrepentant Edwards said. “Let’s make it real clear: I’m not apologizing for it and that’s it. I feel like the score is even and it just cost him more than it cost me at the time, and that’s the way it is.”
Busch grabbed the lead with a dazzling move off Turn 2 on Lap 55, blasting from third to first by passing Edwards and Jeff Gordon while putting Juan Pablo Montoya a lap down in the same swoop. From that point until the critical moment of the race - perhaps, even, the season - on Lap 470, Edwards had pursued Busch’s No. 18 Toyota.
“Kyle had the fastest car on the long runs all night,” Edwards said. “My only chance to get him was on the restarts.”
Edwards pulled almost even at one point, trying moves both inside and outside but failing to make the pass work. On a restart after a yellow on Lap 452 Busch got a good jump, but another yellow on Lap 462 gave Edwards one more try.
The green flew to start Lap 467, and after completing three laps Edwards went into Turn 1 with Busch’s rear bumper within range.
“A real smart racer explained it to me this way after he wrecked me and I was real mad,” Edwards said. “He said, ‘I just had to look at your rear bumper and decide, would you do this to me? And you had before, so it was a real simple decision.’ ”
Earlier this year, in a Nationwide Series race at Richmond, Edwards said Busch “just smoked the back bumper of my car and sent me up the race track.”
“Afterward, he said, ‘Sorry man, my car was just faster,’ ” Edwards recalled. “So, in my mind, I had to ask myself when I went down there in the corner, ‘Should I lift and brake early and do the best I can, or should I just kind of give him a little tap and see what happens?’
“That’s the way it went and that’s the decision I made.
“I’d do it again.”…