Johnson's gaffe gives Busch a Dover win

DOVER, Del. - Kyle Busch would like to believe he would have defeated Jimmie Johnson even without the four-time champion making a rare pit road mistake.

Busch never will know, and he doesn't really care.

When Johnson was penalized for speeding on the final pit stop, that was all the opportunity Busch needed to pull away late Sunday and win his second race in two days at Dover International Speedway.

Johnson made a quick burst out of the box and accelerated trying to catch a departing Busch coming off pit road. Busch joked that he wanted to "coax him into speeding a little bit."

"I don't know if that happened or not, but I'm going to say it did," Busch said.

Busch's victory capped a wildly successful weekend for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

Busch missed the tripleheader sweep on the one-mile concrete track by just a couple gallons of gas.

He was in position to win the Trucks Series race on Friday but ran out of gas at the end. He easily took the checkered flag in Saturday's second-tier series race and raced about 800 miles in three days.

"It's not going to hurt my feelings too bad to go to bed tonight and know that I lost Friday," Busch said. "I'm going to think more about today."

On Sunday, Busch swapped the lead with Johnson throughout most of the 400-mile race run in front of thousands of empty seats. He expected the duel to continue until Johnson was clocked at 40.09 mph in a 35 mph zone.

"I just had too much forward bite leaving the pit box and got going too fast and got busted," Johnson said.

Busch was sorry he was denied an epic late-race showdown.

"Unfortunately for those guys, they got busted for speeding and we weren't able to beat them outright and race them around the end of the race," Busch said. "I'm going on a limb to say we could beat them today with or without the penalty."

Johnson, who won both Dover races last year, finished 16th after having the dominant car most of the race. Johnson led 225 laps to Busch's 131.

"I ran my guts out trying to pass him," Johnson said. "It's unfortunate we didn't have a chance there at the end."

Jeff Burton was second and Matt Kenseth third. Denny Hamlin and David Reutimann rounded out the top five.

Johnson recorded DNF's in two of his last three races and gave other drivers a feeling that he may finally be vulnerable.

Autism Speaks 400

Sunday

At Dover International Speedway

Dover, Del.

Lap length: 1 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (4) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400 laps, 132.8 rating, 190 points, $327,706.

2. (17) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 400, 118.7, 175, $231,740.

3. (21) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 400, 103.3, 170, $210,101.

4. (14) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400, 108.3, 160, $145,275.

5. (13) David Reutimann, Toyota, 400, 110.2, 160, $153,131.

6. (24) Greg Biffle, Ford, 400, 87.7, 150, $117,025.

7. (30) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 400, 88.5, 146, $146,476.

8. (9) Carl Edwards, Ford, 400, 87.2, 142, $136,773.

9. (16) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 400, 91.8, 138, $133,173.

10. (18) Joey Logano, Toyota, 400, 95.1, 134, $133,040.

11. (15) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 400, 86.9, 130, $136,251.

12. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 400, 90.1, 132, $98,675.

13. (6) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 400, 77.1, 124, $125,679.

14. (8) AJ Allmendinger, Ford, 399, 97.3, 121, $127,576.

15. (3) Mark Martin, Chevrolet, 399, 80.7, 118, $106,125.

16. (5) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 399, 129.4, 125, $139,353.

17. (7) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 399, 87.1, 112, $96,775.

18. (20) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 398, 67.3, 109, $114,610.

19. (12) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 398, 87.6, 111, $128,898.

20. (2) Kasey Kahne, Ford, 398, 84.3, 108, $132,765.

21. (23) Paul Menard, Ford, 398, 67.4, 100, $93,800.

22. (39) Casey Mears, Toyota, 397, 58.2, 97, $122,748.

23. (29) Scott Speed, Toyota, 396, 58, 94, $102,823.

24. (37) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 396, 53.6, 91, $91,600.

25. (40) David Gilliland, Ford, 395, 46.1, 88, $103,135.

26. (22) David Ragan, Ford, 395, 58.8, 85, $90,275.

27. (31) David Stremme, Ford, 395, 48.8, 82, $90,625.

28. (19) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 394, 44.8, 79, $88,975.

29. (38) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 393, 42.1, 76, $80,825.

30. (27) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 390, 55.4, 73, $88,675.

31. (42) Robby Gordon, Toyota, 386, 37, 70, $95,098.

32. (11) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 354, 86.9, 67, $115,004.

33. (41) Kevin Conway, Ford, 351, 32.3, 64, $94,748.

34. (10) Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge, 312, 47.8, 61, $85,025.

35. (28) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, suspension, 283, 56.8, 58, $112,206.

36. (26) Marcos Ambrose, Toyota, accident, 222, 60, 55, $96,748.

37. (25) J.J. Yeley, Dodge, engine, 127, 34.1, 52, $76,505.

38. (36) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, brakes, 67, 38.7, 49, $76,395.

39. (33) Bobby Labonte, Chevrolet, electrical, 65, 40.4, 46, $76,280.

40. (32) Mike Bliss, Chevrolet, suspension, 36, 29, 43, $76,150.

41. (35) Dave Blaney, Toyota, electrical, 36, 30.4, 40, $75,970.

42. (34) Michael McDowell, Toyota, brakes, 33, 30.4, 37, $75,890.

43. (43) Johnny Sauter, Chevrolet, electrical, 29, 27.2, 34, $76,262.

Top 12 in Points: 1. K.Harvick, 1,768; 2. Ky.Busch, 1,699; 3. M.Kenseth, 1,642; 4. J.Johnson, 1,637; 5. D.Hamlin, 1,618; 6. J.Gordon, 1,605; 7. G.Biffle, 1,581; 8. J.Burton, 1,569; 9. Ku.Busch, 1,531; 10. C.Edwards, 1,487; 11. M.Martin, 1,475; 12. M.Truex Jr., 1,434.