HAMPTON, Ga. - Kurt Busch survived two green-white-checkered finishes and a flurry of accidents in the final laps to score his second straight win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Busch won his third straight race on a 1.5-mile speedway and gave new crew chief Steve Addington his first victory with the Miller Lite Dodge team.
But it wasn't easy.
Busch had to survive a pair of overtime starts to score career win No. 21 and on the final run to the checkered flag, he outran Matt Kenseth to the finish line.
“Even on the restarts at the end, I just thought we had the car to beat,” Busch said.
Busch knew he had a fast car but also understood speed wasn't the only thing necessary to win on Sunday.
"I'm just so happy to bring this car home to victory lane," Busch said. "With Steve Addington and all his new ideas, I didn't know how we could mesh them together and how soon we were able to do it. We were able to get it right and hit all our marks just perfect today. Even on all the restarts at the end, I just felt like we had the car to beat today."
Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard finished fifth.
A.J. Allmendinger, Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Scott Speed rounded out the top ten.
The first overtime was set-up by a spectacular crash involving Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski with seven laps to go.
The pair, who made contact earlier in the race in an incident that saw Edwards hit the wall and severely damage his Roush Fenway Racing Ford, were racing closely in the final laps despite the 99 car being 156 laps down.
Edwards clipped the rear end of Keselowski's Dodge, who was running inside the top five, as the duo raced down the main straightaway. It appeared to be an intentional move and NASCAR parked Edwards after the spectacular aftermath, that saw Keselowski's No. 12 Dodge fly upside down and into the outside wall.
"Just a wild ride that was uncalled for," said Keselowski, who was uninjured. "That's not cool. He could have killed someone in the grandstands. ... It's not cool to intentionally wreck someone at 195 mph."
Edwards did not admit to his move being a payback in any way.
"That was not what I was expecting," Edwards said. "Everybody knows the history between me and Brad. People have to respect each other. I wish that didn't happen the way it did."
The second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish was marred by a multi-car accident that swept up nearly a dozen cars racing through turns three and four.
Kahne had a strong car and appeared headed for back-to-back wins after his victory last Labor Day weekend, but his car's handling went away down the stretch and he wasn't able to make another trip to Atlanta's victory lane.
"We just got tight and I couldn't get through the corner as good as I needed to," Kahne said on the final restart that saw Montoya and Menard not get a good jump when the green flag flew. "Those restarts were crazy. Juan spun the tires and I tried to push him but it was just a mess."
While Kahne led the most laps of the day spending 144 at the front of the field, Busch was able to stay at the point for 129. The race went 341 laps because of the two overtimes, 16 more than the advertised distance of 325.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series takes a week off before returning to action on March 21st at Bristol Motor Speedway.
